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WAYFARERS OF THE BIBLE 


Works of 
JAMES DAVID BURRELL, D.D. 


THE WAYFARERS OF THE BIBLE. 
A Series of Sermons. 
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Wayfarers of the Bible 


BY 


DAVID JAMES BURRELL 


PASTOR OF THE MARBLE COLLEGIATE CHURCH, NEW YORK 





New York CHICAGO ToRONTO 


Fleming H. Revell Company 


LONDON AND EDINBURGH 


Copyright, 1907, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 123 North Wabash Ave. 
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 


CONTENTS 


JOURNEY I 
In which Adam and Eve, with downcast Faces, leave 
the Garden of Delights 


JOURNEY II 
In which Cain and his Followers, with all their Belong- 
ings, migrate to the Land of Nod 


JOURNEY III 
In which the three Sons of Noah separate and go forth 
to overspread the Earth 2 : 


JOURNEY IV 
In which Abraham and his Household take their De- 
parture to an unknown Country 


JOURNEY V 
In which Isaac, bearing the Wood for the Sacrifice, 
climbs up into the Mount of God 


JOURNEY VI 
In which Jacob and his Family, not without salah al 
descend into Egypt A : ! 


JOURNEY VII 
In which Moses flees for his Life to the Desert of Midian 


JOURNEY VIII 
In which the Children of Israel quit forever the House 
of their Bondage . 


JOURNEY Ix 
In which the Israelites wander up and down in the 
Wilderness : : : 
JOURNEY X 
In which the Israelites cross the Jordan and enter the 
Promised Land . : EARN A 


Drv. S. 


PAGE 


18 


29 


39 


48 


58 


68 


77 


87 


97 


6 Contents 


JOURNEY XI 

In which the strongest of weak Men takes the Road to 

Timnath : x : y 5 : 3 
JOURNEY XII 

In which a Young Man, searching for his Father’s 

Asses, findsa Crown . ¢ : 5 4 : : 


JOURNEY XIII 
In which are traced the Wanderings of the Ark of the 
Covenant : : + . 
JOURNEY XIV 
In which an inquisitive Woman goes a long Way to test 
the Wisdom of a foolish wise Man 


JOURNEY XV 
In which Jeroboam, to his Sorrow, is recalled from 
Exile 


JOURNEY XVI 
In which Elijah goes bravely to the Battle of the 
Gods : : . : : = 
JOURNEY XVII 
In which the Ten Tribes, having finished their Course, 
pass into Oblivion ‘ d : 


JOURNEY XVIII 
In which Judah and Benjamin are led into Captivity 


JOURNEY XIX 
In which Esther makes a long Journey on a fateful 
Errand . , : : : : ° : 
JOURNEY XX 
In which a heathen King is strangely led to restore the 
Exiles to their ancestral Home 


JOURNEY XXI 
In which the Reader is asked to walk through the 
ancient City of Rome on-adark Night . ‘ ‘ 


JOURNEY XXII 


In which the three Kings follow the Star of Bethlehem ; 
and the Day breaks ° = : 3 . 


PAGE 


107 


117 


129 


139 


148 


157 


167 


175 


186 


195 


207 


216 


PREFACE 


In this Book the Author makes an Outline of His- 
tory, tracing it by Journeys as milestones, from the 
Creation to the Advent of Christ. 

Of these Journeys, nine are worthy to be called 
Migrations, by reason of their far-reaching influence 
on the history of the race; namely, II, III, IV, VI, 
VIII, X, XVII, XVIII, and XX. 

The others are important not merely as connectives, 
but as sidelights; for example, The Flight of Moses 
brings out the condition of the Israelites in Egypt; 
Samson on the Road to Timnath shows the state of 
affairs during the period of the Judges; the Wander- 
ings of the Ark and the Visit of the Queen of Sheba 
illustrate the Undivided Kingdom; the fateful Visit of 
Esther to the Banquet-hall of Ahasuerus discloses the 
Sorrows of the Captivity; and the Walk Through 
Rome on a Dark Night draws a sharp contrast be- 
tween the world Before Christ and Christian civili- 
zation. 

The Lesson is one of Confidence. God’s Word 
makes optimists. Every time the world rolls around 
it rolls a little further into the light. The paths of 
History shine “more and more unto the perfect day.” 


If any further word of introduction be needed let 
John Bunyan speak it: 


Preface 


“This book it chalketh out before thine eyes 
The man that seeks the everlasting prize: 
It shows you whence he comes, whither he goes, 
What he leaves undone; also what he does: 
It also shows you how he runs, and runs, 
Till he unto the Gate of Glory comes: 

It shows, too, who set out for life amain, 
As if the lasting crown they would obtain; 
Here also you may see the reason why 
They lose their labor, and like fools do die. 


This book will make a traveller of thee, 
If by its counsel thou wilt ruled be.” 


WAYFARERS OF THE BIBLE 


JOURNEY I 


IN WHICH ADAM AND EVE, WITH DOWNCAST FACES, 
LEAVE THE GARDEN OF DELIGHTS 


Ir evolution* is a fact, the whole Genesis story is a 
fable. Adam and Eve must be conceived of as a pair 
of primordial apes, differentiated from their fellows 
only by the operation of such laws as natural selection 
and survival of the fittest, and quite as incapable of 
moral or immoral action as “Mrs. Crowley” or any 
of the other so-called “primates” at the Zoo. 

The God of the story is a mere freak of the imagina- 
tion, as vague and shadowy as the figure that issued 
from the bottle of Sindbad the Sailor. Not that there 
may not be a God somewhere in the universe, but sim- 
ply that, according to this theory of evolution, he is 
enjoined from taking any part in the Drama of Life. 


* The word is used here as defined by scientific evolutionists 
who propose to account for the universe by the operation of 
natural law with no interposition from any quarter, and who 
allow no evidence in support of their theory except that of 
the five physical senses. There are those who call themselves 
“theistic evolutionists,” holding to Creation and Providence 
and insisting on the development of “all things after their 
kind”; but the real Jews of evolution regard these as Samar- 
itans and have no fraternal dealings with them. 


9 


10 Wayfarers of the Bible 


The incidents in the Garden are collated from the 
folklore of the primitive nations. In the controversy 
respecting the truth of the Scriptures the critics of the 
mischievous left wing, standing on the postulates of 
evolution, are quite correct in affirming that the Book 
of Genesis is made up of fairy tales as empty of fact 
and practically as insignificant as the wonder-tales of 
“Cinderella” and “Jack and the Bean-stalk.” 

They say “There is no science in the Bible”; and 
this is so far true as that the Bible was not intended 
primarily to be a scientific book. We affirm, never- 
theless, that in the province of scientific literature 
there is no book more scientific than the Bible, if by 
science we mean knowledge founded on facts. The 
Book of Genesis is par excellence the Book of 
Origins. It comes most effectively to the scientist’s 
aid in resolving problems which with all his searches 
and researches he can never find out. 

The expulsion from Paradise is in evidence. It 
explains some things which are otherwise inexplicable, 
to wit: 


I. The Origin of the Race. 


Here are two figures issuing from the Garden. 
Who are they? I have no desire to caricature the 
evolutionary view of this matter, in the least degree. 
If it were put on canvas, by its own advocates, in 
plain colors and with a pre-Raphaelite regard for de- 
tail, the picture would look like this: A pair of “hairy 
quadrupeds, arboreal in their habits” (sic Darwin), 
coming out of a forest with chattering teeth. In des- 
perate haste they spring from bough to bough of the 


Wayfarers of the Bible II 


overarching trees, making use of their bony paws and 
prehensile tails, or leap along the ground on all-fours, 
emitting indistinguishable cries through their black, 
protruding lips. These be thy progenitors, O self- 
respecting man! 

I confess to a family pride which revolts at this 
version of the narrative. If evolution, as indicated, 
were a demonstrated fact, we should be obliged as 
reasonable men to accept it with all the “appurte- 
nances pertaining thereunto”; but to ask us to em- 
brace a mere hypothesis on such terms is a gratuitous 
insult to our common sense. 

It is fortunate that science, properly so-called, 
makes no such claim. Its affirmations, so far as 
founded on established facts, are these: 

First, Man is a unique being, separated by a number 
of unbridged chasms from all the lower orders of 
life. His main distinction is indicated by Sir William 
Hamilton in these terms: “Man is not an organism but 
an intelligence served by organs.” 

Second, All established facts go to show that the 
whole race is of common origin and that its origin was 
in a single pair; or, as stated by Paul on Mars Hill, 
“All nations of men are of one blood.” 

Third, The investigations of anthropologists indi- 
cate that primitive man was constitutionally as perfect 
as the man of these days. The oldest skeleton shows 
that he was physically all there. The Pleiocene skull 
suggests the same endowment of perceptive and re- 
flective power. 

But when science has gone thus far, it knits its brow 
and vainly asks, “Whence came he?” At this point 


12 Wayfarers of the Bible 


Revelation comes to the aid of science, saying, “In the 
beginning God created man in his own image and 
after his likeness. He breathed into his nostrils the 
breath of life and man became a living soul.” And 
it follows up this statement with those ancient geneal- 
ogies which seem to the cursory reader of Scripture 
as dry as Homer’s catalogue of ships, but which 
are indeed the anthropologist’s best aid. They do 
not carry us back through a series of unfounded hy- 
potheses to what Thomas Carlyle calls “an origin in 
frogspawn,” but they lead us from generation to 
generation until, erect and self-respecting, we find 
ourselves descended from Enos, who was the son of 
Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of 
God. 

So testify the Scriptures. It was a man and woman 
who left the Garden of Eden. Our first parents were 
not anthropoids, but anthropoi; a fully developed 
human pair, royally equipped in body and mind, ra- 
tional and responsible, able to think God’s thoughts 
after him. 


Il. We have here also an account of the origin of 
sin. 


As to the fact of sin there is no difference of opin- 
ion. Observation and experience alike affirm that 
“there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” The 
assertions of science in this connection are two: 

First, Sin is here and it has apparently no right to 
be here. It is not an essential or organic part of the 
human constitution. If a man in charge of a Corliss 
engine were to discover, one morning, that every wheel 


Wayfarers of the Bible 13 


and piston-rod and pinion were out of order, all things 
grating and creaking and going wrong, he would say, 
“A foreign factor has somehow gotten into this ma- 
chine.” And this statement would be scientifically cor- 
rect as applied to the human race. Man is the only 
mechanism in the universe which is everywhere and 
always out of gear. The Vegetable Kingdom obeys 
the laws of its being; so does the solar system; so does 
every living creature except man. The obsolete word 
anomy, meaning “without law,” furnishes the scientific 
definition of sin. 

Second, Science takes cognizance of suffering as 
consequent on sin. It is a fact, without reference to 
Scripture, that the evolution of the law of man’s being 
is bound to involve him in suffering. Lawlessness it- 
self is subject to law; the law being, “Whatsoever a 
man soweth that shall he also reap.”’. This is what the 
_ Buddhists call Karma, “the law of consequences.” 
Thus suffering is accounted for by referring it to sin: 
but here also science knits its brow and vainly asks, 
“Whence came sin?” 

At this point Scripture comes in again to help science 
out. It points to the two figures issuing from the gate 
of Paradise and makes the following affirmations con- 
cerning them: 

First, This man and woman were created in a state 
of innocency: that is, they were wholly free from sin. 

Second, They were placed in a garden, where every- 
thing was favorable to their continued happiness and 
development into better things. 

Third, They were there subjected to trial. To raise 
the question of justice in this connection is impertinent 


14 Wayfarers of the Bible 


and inconsequential. The question is purely one of 
necessity. Their ignorant innocence was merely a tem- 
porary condition. They must inevitably move out of 
it into either sin or righteousness. Mere innocency 
has no moral quality; it is the negative whiteness of a 
marble image. Character is positive; only rational 
and responsible beings can have it; and trial alone 
can develop it. When innocency has successfully 
passed the ordeal, it becomes righteousness, like gold 
tried in the fire. 

Fourth, They failed to pass the ordeal; and in fail- 
ing they lost not only their innocence, but the splendid 
possibility of gaining a positive disposition toward 
holiness and a fixed habit of obedience, which would 
have made them morally like God. 

Fifth, Then came suffering, in the necessity of the 
case. This is the Expulsion from Eden. The Fall en- 
tailed the forfeiture of the peace which is conditioned 
on righteousness. The Garden of Delights is for those 
who keep company with God. Paradise is ever lost by 
sin, and can only be regained by getting rid of sin and 
putting on “the righteousness which is of God.” In 
going forth out of Paradise these original prodigals 
set their faces toward the far country of further sin 
and consequent suffering. They had contracted a tend- 
ency which was destined to ripen into inevitable in- 
dulgence. “Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a 
habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and 
you reap a destiny.’””’ Whatsoever a man soweth that 
shall he also reap. The law is automatic. The Deca- 
logue does not wait for Sinai or the tables of stone; it 
is written in the constitution of man, interwoven with 


Wayfarers of the Bible 15 


his nerve and sinew. So the exiles went forth to sin 
and suffering. The keeping of the garden had been a 
pleasure; but thenceforth the thorn-encumbered 
ground was to yield its fruits only in “the sweat of the 
face.’ Work was to become drudgery; being ham- 
pered by worry, which is the antithesis of faith. The 
first of weary pilgrims go forth into the world of in- 
dustry as “brothers of the ox.” They hide their faces, 
their backs are bent under the burden. There will be 
blood flowing and hearts breaking before they are 
through with it. 

Sixth, Then follows the transmission of sin. Did I 
say “before they are through with it” ? Aye; this is 
the misery of the Fall: “no man liveth unto himself 
and no man dieth unto himself.” These exiles will 
have children; and, because the fathers have eaten 
sour grapes, the children’s teeth will be set on edge. 
Thus it is written in science, as well as in Scripture 
and the New England Primer: 


“In Adam’s fall 
We sinnéd all.” 


But you say that you do not believe in the doctrine 
of Original Sin! My friend, you are half a century 
behind the age! No student of science nowadays de- 
nies Original Sin; only it is called by a different name, 
“heredity.” There is no denying the sight of one’s 
eyes. The evidence is on every hand. You may raise 
the question of justice, but the universal fact is indis- 
putable. All “children look like their fathers.” 

Seventh, Then death. “The soul that sinneth, it 
shall die.’ Were Scripture and science agree. The 


16 Wayfarers of the Bible 


foreign factor which has gotten into your Corliss en- 
gine has produced friction; and unless you can make 
an end of that friction, it will bring your machine to 
inevitable ruin. But what shall make an end of sin? 
The moral organism is under momentum; the disturb- 
ing factor works with accelerating force; how will you 
stop it? In time or in eternity, how will you stop it? 


Ill. We have here, moreover, a suggestion as to 
the Origin of Hope. 


For, notwithstanding the shame of these fugitives 
from Eden, there is a singular light on their faces. 
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” The 
fable of Pandora’s Box is true. Go where you will, 
the world over, you will find men dreaming of deliver- 
ance. They cannot believe that the God who created 
them will leave them to despair. But where is the 
ground of this universal hope? There is absolutely 
nothing in unaided reason to account for it. 


“Life without hope draws nectar in a sieve, 
And hope without an object cannot live.” 


What is its object? Ask science and you will get no 
answer. There is nothing more unaccountable to hu- 
man wisdom than this universal light upon the face of 
man. All that science can say is, “Cause must be fol- 
lowed by effect. Sin means suffering until sin shall 
end. The sowing and the reaping must go on. There 
is no ground for hope; it is as baseless as the fabric 
of a dream.” 

But here again the Book of Origins comes to the 
help of science. It speaks of the protevangel which 


Wayfarers of the Bible 17 


was uttered in Paradise: “The Seed of Woman shall 
bruise the serpent’s head.’”’ No sooner had sin entered 
into the world than its remedy was announced. Christ 
was coming; the Christ whose atoning blood should 
cleanse from sin. No sooner had the exiles passed 
through the gates of Paradise than they reared an al- 
tar and laid a slain lamb upon it. And altars began to 
multiply, until the hilltops of the world were crowned 
with them. And over every altar the blood was flow- 
ing. What did it mean? Can the blood of lambs or of 
bullocks cleanse from sin? Nay; never was man so 
foolish as to believe that. The light of the protevangel 
shines on the face of the man beside the altar; and in 
his sacrifice he sets forth, however dimly and vaguely, 
“the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” 

In the strength of that protevangel our first parents 
went out of the Garden to meet the dangers and vicis- 
situdes of life. The promise given to them was the 
beginning of an unbroken series of prophecies which 
runs through the Scriptures of the Old Testament like 
a golden chain. This was “the Hope of Israel.” This 
is the Hope of Humanity. Spes wnica! It is the 
Christ, whose blood shall cleanse from sin. 


JOURNEY II 


IN WHICH CAIN AND HIS FOLLOWERS, WITH ALL THEIR 
BELONGINGS, MIGRATE TO THE LAND OF NOD 


To the east of the Garden of Eden lay the land 
where our first parents dwelt after their expulsion. 
Its name, “The Land of Eden,” suggests the memory 
of past happiness. There, for some hundreds of years, 
they remained and worked out their destiny, “multi- 
plying and replenishing the earth.” 

The sword-like cloud of infolding fire with the two 
cherubim continued to guard the entrance of Paradise. 
It was probably not without reason that the rabbis 
identified this cloud with the Shekinah, or “most ex- 
cellent glory,” which was the visible token of the di- 
vine Presence; by which, as “a pillar of cloud by day 
and of fire by night,” the Children of Israel were 
guided through the wilderness, and which subse- 
quently hovered above the Ark of the Covenant, where 
God had promised to speak to his people: “from be- 
tween the wings of the cherubim.” 

To our first parents and their children of succeed- 
ing generations this cloud was a perpetual testimony 
of the abiding Presence. The first altar was built un- 
der its shadow; and there, in the original sanctuary, the 
simple prototype of the temple of Solomon, “men be- 
gan to call upon the name of the Lord.” There they 
cherished the protevangel, the sustaining hope of the 

18 


Wayfarers of the Bible 19 


coming Christ, and knew that Jehovah was still their 
God. 

In course of time the race divided itself into the two 
lines of Seth and Cain. The former was destined to be 
the channel for the transmission of the Messianic hope, 
while the latter was to deviate further and further 
from truth and righteousness. For some centuries the 
two lines dwelt together; and then “Cain went out 
from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land 
of Nod.” ° 

So simply is chronicled the first of the great mi- 
grations which occupy so important a place in history. 
Out of this movement were to flow issues that should 
affect the welfare of the coming ages. 

The man took with him his wife and children, and 
descendants, a great company like-minded with him- 
self. His steps were turned eastward toward an unex- 
plored country or wilderness known as “the land of 
Nod.” And there he builded a city. In one of Macau- 
lay’s poems this city is described as a magnificent 
place: 

“From all its threescore gates the light 
Of gold and steel afar was thrown; 
Two hundred cubits rose in height 
The outer wall of polished stone. 

On the top was ample space 
For a gallant chariot race: 
Near either parapet a bed 

Of the richest mold was spread, 


Where, amidst flowers of every scent and hue, 
Rich orange trees and palms and giant cedars grew.” 


In this metropolis sat the ruler Cain, surrounded by 
the splendors of an Oriental court. 


20 Wayfarers of the Bible 


“With naked swords and shields of gold 
Stood the seven princes of the tribes of Nod; 
Upon an ermine carpet lay 
Two tiger cubs in furious play 
Beneath the emerald throne, where sat the signed of God.” 


It would be much nearer the truth, however, to con- 
ceive this first of cities as a collection of wattled huts, 
with a rude stockade about it. 

As to the motive of Cain and his followers in moy- 
ing away from the land of Eden, and exchanging the 
pursuits of pastoral and agricultural life for the more 
absorbing cares and ambitions of the madding crowd, 
we are not left in doubt. “He went out,” the record 
says, “from the presence of the Lord.” The cloud of 
“the most excellent glory” was a constant reminder to 
him of the ingrained sin which separated him from the 
Holy One. In resolving to depart from that Presence 
he was controlled by the same impulse which recently 
moved a burglar to turn the picture “Ecce Homo” 
with its face to the wall, that he might pursue his evil 
calling with less scruple or compunction of conscience ; 
“thus conscience does make cowards of us all.” 

And he desired also to escape from the embarrass- 
ing presence of his religious kinsmen of the line of 
Seth. The proverb, “Birds of a feather flock to- 
gether,” lies back of all the historic migrations. “Like 
seeks like,” and the righteous are ever a reproach to 
the evil-minded. It was for this reason that Professor 
Webster, while awaiting his trial for murder, asked the 
warden of the prison to keep the corridor clear of visi- 
tors, because, as he said, “Every man who looks in at 
my barred window calls to me, ‘O thou bloody man!’ ” 


Wayfarers of the Bible 21 


‘And, further, in the segregation of city life he doubt- 
less hoped for greater freedom in the pursuit of his 
ambitious schemes. The name of the city, “Enoch,” 
means “consecrated.” The place was consecrated to 
the spirit of Cain. The spirit of Cain is selfishness. It 
leaves out all due consideration of God and of human 
rights. The legend over the gateway of the city was, 
“Am I my brother's keeper?” 

It would appear that Cain the fratricide was, with 
all his sins, a mighty man and a mighty leader of men. 
The building of the city would naturally furnish an 
outlet for his restless energies. He would be free to 
carry out, unhampered by vain scruples, his self-seek- 
ing enterprises. So runs the story of ambition through 
all the ages. 

In this original movement of Cain and his followers 
from the quiet country life to the activity of the city we 
find an anticipation of the cityward drift which is all 
the while going on. Sallust lamented that the young 
men of his time were leaving their pleasant homes 
beyond the Alban Hills and seeking the smoky atmos- 
phere of Rome. “There are so many voices” in na- 
ture; but the hum of city life is more alluring than the 
murmur of brooks or the singing of birds. In the 
schools of our boyhood we gravely debated the ques- 
tion, “Which is preferable: country or city life?’ and 
the decision hinged upon the fact that “God made the 
country, while man made the town”; but in due time 
we said farewell to the farm or the village, and, like 
Franklin with all his worldly belongings over his 
shoulder, came trudging to town. 

And why not? The city is the center of life. Col- 


22 Wayfarers of the Bible 


luvies gentium. The hopes and the purposes of the na- 
tions are here. The throb of the crowded streets is the 
beating of the universal heart. 

It is an inspiring sight to see the throng each morn- 
ing making its way from the steam-cars and ferry- 
boats, the subway and the elevated trains, to the cen- 
ters of our metropolitan life. These are the masters of 
the world’s prosperity; brave men, earnest and ambi- 
tious, not contented with mediocrity, ready to face 
danger and responsibility, if only they may “get on in 
the world.” God bless them and give them success! 

But let them take heed. As they enter the gates of 
the city let them lift their eyes and read their tempta- 
tion in the legend, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” For 
as the city stands for congested life, so its besetting sin 
is selfishness. Here dwells the spirit of Cain. Here 
do congregate those who flee from the presence of the 
Lord and from the humanities that make us brethren 
to our fellow men. 

The spirit of Cain is all too manifest in our indus- 
trial life. It is a singular fact that the early develop- 
ments of secular enterprise and improvement seem to 
have been confined to the line of Cain. In the line of 
Seth we find no mention of any invention in art or 
handicraft until the building of the ark. The names 
of the Cainite line, such as Enoch, Jared, “the swift 
one,” Lamech, “the striker,” are eloquent of eager and 
ambitious purpose. And here is Tubal-Cain, the 
maker of arms and implements. The anvils in the 
city of Enoch ring with industry. So far, so good; 
but this goes on, alas! without reverence toward God 
or regard for the rights of men. 


Wayfarers of the Bible 23 


The selfishness of industrial enterprise is repre- 

sented in the word “competition”; and competition in 
the city of Enoch, or in any other city where God and 

humanity are left out of the reckoning, means success 
by the pushing aside of the other man. I profit by his 
loss; I advance by thrusting him out of my way. 

To seek wealth is a legitimate pursuit. There is an 
honest penny which it behooves every man to get. 
But there are three pennies in circulation which blister 
the hands and shrivel the soul of a man: 

One is the stolen penny. The thief filches it from 
his neighbor’s pocket ; the gambler gets it on the green 
baize field. It is a stolen penny however it be gotten, 
unless it be earned by the sweat of one’s face. 

Another is the tainted penny; which is gotten by 
fraud, overreaching, sharp bargaining or somehow at 
the expense of the other man. It bears the image and 
superscription of Cain, with the legend, “Am I my 
brother’s keeper?” There is a sense in which all cur- 
rency is “tainted,” in that it has passed through hands 
defiled. But the determining question is not, How was 
it handled before it came to you? but How did you get 
it? Not how did Mr. Rockefeller acquire it? but How 
did the American Board get it? Not how did your 
employer gather it in? but, Did you come by it hon- 
estly? Each for himself must settle that. 

And the third is the rusted penny; that which has 
been hoarded when it should have been spent; that 
which is corroded in the vault when it should have 
been going about doing good. This is the penny which 
a man lays away when it is needed for the betterment 
of others and when it is called for, as a fund in trust, 


24 Wayfarers of the Bible 


to be used in the great enterprises of the kingdom 
of God. 

The man who, while ambitious to make his way, 
would live amid the temptations of city life, must give 
heed to fair play. Let him avoid impiety on the one 
hand and selfishness on the other. Let him put his 
conscience into his secular pursuit. Let him beware 
of pushing another down that he may stand up. 

If Christ were to come to New York and preach the 
Golden Rule, would he be heard, think you, or would 
his voice be drowned in the roar of traffic and by the 
louder voices of the horse-leech’s daughters, “Give! 
give!” Yet that rule, “Do as ye would be done by,” 
is destined to solve all industrial problems, determine 
the just relations between labor and capital and ulti- 
mately bring in the Golden Age. 

The spirit of Cain is manifest, also, in the social life 
of the city. And here we observe again that the early 
developments in culture were along the line of Cain. 
It was his grandson Jubal who invented the harp and 
organ. The liberal arts, as well as the achievements 
of constructive genius, seem to have had their center 
in the City of Enoch. 

And with what result? A godless culture, a civiliza- 
tion without humanity, always comes to naught. The 
oldest scrap of poetry in literature is the song of 
Lamech, who, in returning from a marauding expedi- 
tion, sang: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice! Ye 
wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech! For I 
have slain a man for wounding me and a young man 
for bruising me. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, 
truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.” Here in a 


Wayfarers of the Bible 25 


single verse we have a celebration of the two consum- 
mate vices of a godless civilization, to wit, war and 
polygamy ; the basest violations of social and domes- 
tic life. And this was the consummation of culture 
in the Cainite city of Enoch. 

It is a true saying, “History repeats itself.” The 
Golden Age of Greece was that in which vice was most 
triumphant. A due regard for God and humanity lays 
emphasis on duties rather than on rights, on benevo- 
lence rather than on personal gain. Arts, science, in- 
ventions, mechanical skill; Cain and his townsmen had 
them all! 

The same spirit of selfishness struggles for mastery 
in the political life of the city. No doubt this city of 
Enoch had its laws, its councils, and its political cor- 
ruptions. The “wide-open policy” was prevalent 
there. Graft and bribery doubtless had their way. 
God was not in the Constitution nor in the lives of the 
people. The magistrates were in collusion with law- 
breakers; and if there was any remonstrance, the 
answer was, “What do you propose to do about 
it?” 

All this sounds like recent history. One is reminded 
of what Rudyard Kipling said of New York, “It is a 
long, narrow hog-trough, where each struggles for his 
own, and the people have occasional paroxysms of vir- 
tue.” We resent that imputation, yet cannot deny that 
there is a measure of truth in it. We cannot be blind 
to common violations of law and morality, which are 
winked at by thé powers that be. Is there a law 
against “dives” ? Why, then, are our dens of iniquity 
unsuppressed? Is there a law looking to the observ- 


26 Wayfarers of the Bible 


ance of the Sabbath? Why, then, are the theaters wide 
open every Sabbath night? Is there a civil service law? 
Why, then, are notoriously evil appointments made and 
scandalously corrupt men kept in office? And all the 
while it is an open secret that the good people of this 
city are in a great majority! Alas, they are taken up 
in the lips of talkers and controlled by demagogic ap- 
peals to expediency as against truth and righteousness. 
On Election Day there are many of these excellent 
people who make the cross in the circle under the 
legend of Cain; and it is by the corrupt use of the 
balance of power in their hands that the city is con- 
trolled in the interest of Cain. 

The word of the Master is, “Render unto Cesar the 
things that are Czsar’s, and render unto God the 
things that are God’s.” Put that into the current 
phrase of present duty and it would read, “Vote for 
lawmakers who will make statutes and ordinances con- 
sistent with the divine law. Vote for magistrates who, 
independent of bonds and pledges, will fearlessly en- 
force law. Vote for the candidate who regards him- 
self as his brother’s keeper and his office as a sacred 
trust; who reveres God and purposes to serve his fel- 
low men.” 

Once more, the spirit of selfishness is obvious in 
much of the ecclesiastical life of the city. Were there 
shrines or sanctuaries in the city of Enoch? No doubt. 
A community cannot live without religious institu- 
tions. But they are dedicated to false gods. And usu- 
ally those gods are worshiped with the most elabo- 
rate rites and ceremonies. The citizens of Enoch had 
fled from the presence of the Lord, but they could not 


Wayfarers of the Bible 27 


be atheists. There are no atheists. All tribes and peo- 
ples have their mosques and temples. But the Scotch ° 
proverb is true, “A man may be anear the kirk an’ 
still afar frae God.” 

It was into the city’s sanctuary that Jesus entered 
with his scourge of small cords. It was to the re- 
ligious leaders of Jerusalem that he said, “Woe unto 
you, Scribes and Pharisees, maskwearers! Ye make 
long prayers at the corners of the streets and devour 
widows’ houses!” Would it seem like an intrusion if 
this Carpenter in homespun were suddenly to appear 
in our Churches with an announcement of his gospel 
of piety and humanity? There was nothing in the 
world more hateful to him than selfishness masquet- 
ading in canonicals. It is written, “Pure and unde- 
filed religion before God and the Father is to visit the 
fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep 
one’s self unspotted from the world.” Can we test 
our forms of worship by that touchstone? 

This is not to say that there are not multitudes of 
devout people in our city Churches; or that the Church 
itself is not a divine institution, or that every Christian 
ought not to be a member of it. But there is need of 
constant vigilance lest the weightier matters of the di- 
vine law give way to superficial profession and spir- 
itual pride. 

The bitter cry of the outcast is heard amid the con- 
fused noises of the city. The Church cannot ignore 
its responsibility toward the lapsed masses. To cry 
“Tord, Lord!” and ‘reach forth no helping hand is not 
to follow in his steps. The love of God and the love of 
souls must take possession of us. Christ came into 


28 Wayfarers of the Bible 


the world to seek and save the lost; and he said, “As 
the Father hath sent me, so I send you.” 

Up and down our streets walks the Master, pausing 
in the market-place to cry, ““Ho, every one that thirst- 
eth; come ye!” And the city is full of people who need 
him. They jostle each other in their pursuit of selfish 
gain and pleasure. There are those among them who, 
were there but a momentary lull in the unceasing 
noises, might hear again the sacred terms in which 
they made the covenant of their youth. They are lost 
in the city; caught up in the swirl of its sordid pur- 
suits and forgetful of the calls of God and humanity. 
O men in the City of Enoch, stop and think! Take 
time to ponder on truth and righteousness. No man 
liveth unto himself! Listen to the voices. Hear the 
cry of perishing men. Live no longer for self alone, 
but for the glory of God and the good of your fellow 
men. 


JOURNEY III 


IN WHICH THE THREE SONS OF NOAH SEPARATE AND 
GO FORTH TO OVERSPREAD THE EARTH 


IF one of the planets were to swing out of its orbit, 
what hope of restoration would there be? The fall of 
man was a departure from the law of his being; and 
the inevitable sequence, barring divine interposition, 
was an ever-increasing departure from truth and 
righteousness. 

The first five chapters of the book of Genesis cover 
a period of about fifteen hundred years, during which 
the race was under a moral momentum which carried 
it from bad to worse. The climacteric point of deca- 
dence is indicated in this wise: “And God saw that the 
wickedness of man was great in the earth and that 
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was 
only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that 
he had made man on the earth; and it grieved him 
at his heart.” 

The next three chapters of the Book are devoted to 
the remedy or corrective. Nothing would answer but 
a clean sweep and a fresh start. This is the meaning 
of the Flood. “The fountains of the deep were broken 
up and the windows of heaven were opened; and the 
waters prevailed excéedingly upon the earth, and all 
the high hills that were under the whole heaven were 
covered; and the ark went upon the face of the wa- 


29 


30 Wayfarers of the Bible 


ters.” in that ark, committed to a boundless sea amid 
a scene of universal desolation, were Noah and his 
wife, with his three sons and their wives. In those 
eight persons were involved the future destinies of the 
race. 

“And in the seventh month on the seventeenth day 
of the month the ark rested on Ararat.” The fateful 
voyage was over. And God spake unto Noah, saying, 
“Go forth from the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy 
sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.” And they 
builded an altar unto the Lord and offered thereon a 
sacrifice, which, like every burnt offering, had in it the 
potential prophecy of the coming Lamb of God. 

As the suppliants lifted their eyes from the altar 
they beheld the Bow of Promise. And God said, “I 
will set my bow in the clouds; and it shall be for a 
token of the Covenant which I have established be- | 
tween me and all flesh that is upon the earth.” The altar 
was the expression of human need; and the Bow of 
Promise, the visible symbol of providence and grace, 
was God’s response to man’s cry. It was as if he said, 
“I will never leave thee; I will never—no, never—no, 
never forsake thee!” 

In the vicinity of Ararat the family of Noah settled 
down to replenish the earth. And then for another 
period of a hundred and forty years or thereabouts, 
the race repeated its downward career, going deeper 
and deeper into sin, until the climax was reached in the 
Vale of Shinar, where they said, “Go to, let us build a 
city and a tower whose top shall point upward like a 
finger defiant of God!” And the Lord said, “Go to, 
let us go down and there confound them!’ Then the 


Wayfarers of the Bible 31 


Dispersion ; as it is written, “From thence did he scat- 
ter them abroad upon the face of the earth.” 

Here we observe the second of those great migra- 
tions which have furnished the salient points in human 
history. The three sons of Noah, with their followers, 
went their several ways to work out their destiny. It 
is an apologue of life. For thus men ever stand at the 
parting of the ways, cast the horoscope of fortune, and 
set forth into the unknown. It is for them to say, un- 
der God, what their future shall be. 

Our proposition is this: Life is what we make it. 

Let it be observed that at the outset the three broth- 
ers had a fair start and an equal chance. 

They were handicapped alike by sin. 

As each possessed the sovereign power of choice, so 
each was capable of going wrong. And it was a moral 
certainty that they would do it. This is the one thing 
that can be prognosticated of every man. The moth- 
ers of the earth all sit with their children in their arms, 
hoping, wondering, and vainly striving to pierce the fu- 
ture; but one thing is morally sure, when those chil- 
dren come to years of discretion they will all, without 
exception, turn aside into the evil way. 

The three brothers were alike, also, in their parental 
inheritance. 

We know nothing of their mother; but of their fa- 
ther it is said, “He was a preacher of righteousness, 
and a just man who walked with God.” His name is 
recorded in the Roll-call of Heroes in the Eleventh of 
Hebrews as one who.“became heir of the righteous- 
ness which is by faith.” He was by no means, how- 
ever, a perfect man, being the victim of at least one 


32 Wayfarers of the Bible 


besetting sin, as it is written, “He planted a vineyard; 
and he drank of the wine and was drunken.” It was 
inevitable that his sins, whatever they were, should be 
transmitted to his children after him. Heredity is an 
indisputable fact; but it affords no excuse for indul- 
gence in sin. We are all heirs of our forbears, and 
there is no great difference. Some inherit the grosser 
vices, such as drunkenness and licentiousness, which 
leave their visible scars; while others are heirs to an- 
cestral pride, covetousness, and like “respectable” 
vices, which do not exclude them from polite society. 
The drunkard who reels along the street is no more 
really handicapped by his patrimony of alcoholism, 
than is the millionaire’s son who wears his father’s 
bonds of avarice; and to each belongs the individual 
power, with God’s help, to resist heredity and be his 
own man. 

And the three brothers were alike subject to the evil 
constraints of environment. 

It was not a matter of supreme importance which 
way they turned their several steps; for the power of 
evil “goeth up and down through the whole earth.” 
There are invalids who spend their time in nothing else 
but in seeking a “favorable climate” in Florida or in 
the Adirondacks or across the sea. But the disease of 
sin knows nocurative climate. Are the denizens of the 
city exposed to special temptations? So are those of 
the villages and farmers’ boys at the crossroads. Will 
you keep your son from college because temptations 
there await him? He must meet temptation at home 
or wherever he may be; and, in any case, must fight 
his way to character. “The Best of men that e’er 


Wayfarers of the Bible 33 


wore flesh about him” grew up in the notorious town 
of Nazareth. 

But there is another side to this. We have seen how 
the three sons of Noah were equally handicapped; let 
us now observe some of the advantages which they 
shared equally, and by which they were encouraged 
to quit themselves like men. 

To begin with, each had a free and sovereign will 
of his own. 

Any sin which they might commit would be by the 
power of choice. The same is true of other men. If 
any of us will look back over his life, he must per- 
ceive that he has never committed a single sin of which 
he is not bound to say, “I chose to do it.” In this sense 
every man is the architect of his own fortune; and, by 
the same token, he must bear his burden of responsi- 
bility. It is as Cesar said: “The fault, dear Brutus, 
is not-in our stars but in ourselves, that we are under- 
lings.” 

And, further, each of these brothers had a conscience 
of his own; a voice within, by which he was enabled 
to discern “betwixt the worse and better reason.” 

All men, as Paul says, have “the law written in their 
hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their. 
thoughts, the meanwhile, accusing or else excusing one 
another.” This is the universal monitor which God 
has given to guide us, like the North Star which guides 
all mariners upon the open sea. 

And, further and better still, the three brothers had 
alike the promise of divine help. 

They were “children of the covenant”; the bow of 
promise was over them. It was the symbol of the 


34 Wayfarers of the Bible 


protevangel, “the Hope of Israel,” the presage of the 
coming Christ, in whom the divine arm was to be 
made bare to sustain and deliver them. What more 
could they ask? 

Now as to the sequel. If we were arguing in 
the province of ethnological science, it would be in 
order, at this point, to refer to the tenth chapter of 
Genesis, a dry genealogical table, which furnishes the 
basis of all correct history as to the solidarity of the 
race. But this is aside from our purpose, which is to 
emphasize the practical outcome of the separation of 
these brothers, as bearing upon the life and character 
of men. 

Ham with his household turned to the South, and 
became the father of the black races. The one inci- 
dent which is related of him shows that he made a bad 
beginning, in a sin of filial irreverence and sensuality. 
The word which was spoken, “Cursed be Canaan; a 
servant of servants shall he be,” was simply the divine 
imprimatur put upon the natural law, “Whatsoever a 
man soweth that shall he also reap.” It is a singular 
comment upon the veracity of the sacred narrative that 
the sin of Ham, as witnessed in the black races of 
Egypt, of Ethiopia, and of the negroes of our South- 
ern States, is a racial sin; and, also, that its punish- 
ment has been racial; since the black race has ever 
furnished the bond-slaves of the earth; as God said, 
“A servant of servants shall he be.” 

Shem was the father of the Hebrews. He set out 
with a great promise, “Blessed be the Lord God of 
Shem!” The Jews were the chosen people; chosen to 
a splendid privilege and to a corresponding responsi- 


Wayfarers of the Bible a5 


bility. To them was entrusted the special care of the 
oracles, the transmission of the worship of the true 
God, and the Messianic hope. In this God showed 
himself to be “the God of Shem.” Paul says, ‘““What 
advantage hath the Jew? Much every way; first of 
all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.” 
And this is explained by Christ himself where he 
says, “Salvation is of the Jews.’ The hope of the 
coming Christ, who was symbolically set forth in the 
Bow of Promise, was known as “the Hope of Israel.” 

But, alas! these people were untrue to their privi- 
lege. For twenty centuries they cherished the hope of 
Messiah only to renounce it at the supreme moment 
when their fidelity was put to the crucial test. Their 
Messiah “came unto his own and his own received 
him not.” He sat on the slope of Olivet and wept 
over their blind obduracy: “O Jerusalem, how often 
would I have gathered you as a hen doth gather her 
brood under her wings, and ye would not! And now, 
behold, your house is left unto you desolate!”” A few 
days later the children of Shem followed the Christ, 
their Messiah for whom they had looked so long, up 
the slopes of Golgotha, crying, “Crucify him! Cru- 
cify him!” The deed was done, and their house was 
left unto them desolate. In the succeeding centuries 
they have remained a separated people; the miracle 
of history; a people as distinct from other peoples as 
the Gulf Stream flowing through the sea. And O, 
the desolation of the house of Shem! A people com- 
manding the world’s wealth and standing at the fore- 
front of its intellectual history, yet all the while ex- 
posed to unspeakable wrongs and persecutions! To- 


36 Wayfarers of the Bible 


day the unburied dead of the house of Shem are lying 
in the streets of Kishineff. God of Shem, when shall 
thy chosen people behold their Christ? When shall 
they return to the covenant that was set forth in the 
Bow of Promise? When shall they sit under the lumi- 
nous shadow of the cross? Pity thine own people and 
anoint their eyes with eyesalve that they may see! 

Japheth and his household turned to the North, tak- 
ing with them a promise which was destined to be 
interpreted in the light of coming events: “God shall 
enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of 
Shem.” Centuries must pass before the world should 
see that promise fulfilled in the overthrow of Jerusa- 
lem by the Romans, and still more clearly in the open- 
ing up of the Gentile world to the Gospel. For the 
Apostle Paul and others who gave the Glad Tidings to 
Europe were the seed of Shem, and Europe was peo- 
pled by the seed of Japheth. 

A few years after the crucifixion, Paul and Barna- 
bas, both Jews, were preaching in the synagogue at 
Antioch, where for a considerable time they had been 
vainly pressing the Messianic claims of Jesus upon 
their countrymen. In that synagogue, that day, were 
spoken words which marked it as one of the pivotal 
days of history. Paul said to his Jewish audience: pas 
was necessary that the word of God should be first 
spoken unto you: but seeing ye put it from you, and 
judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we 
turn to the Gentiles! For so hath the Lord com- 
manded, saying, I have set thee to be a light unto the 
Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation even 
unto the ends of the earth.” 


Wayfarers of the Bible ag 


Thus the desolated house of the children of Shem 
was opened up to the children of Japheth. The Hope 
of Israel which had been renounced was to become a 
universal hope. To this fact all subsequent history 
bears testimony. “Westward the course of empire 
takes its way.” The Romans, the Teutons, the Angles, 
and the Saxons have been the conquering peoples of 
the earth. Japhetic supremacy is an accomplished. 
fact. Christian civilization is a synonym for light, 
liberty, and enterprise. The Christian Church is bear- 
ing salvation unto the ends of the earth. Japheth 
dwells in the tents of Shem. 

Now as to the practical lesson. Life is what we 
make it. The three brothers are ever going forth to 
work out their destiny, each for himself, under the 
bow of promise. 

Are they handicapped? Yes, like Ham and Shem 
and Japheth. All alike are hampered and crippled by 
sin. All alike must struggle against heredity and en- 
vironment, the corrupted currents of their ancestral 
blood, and the adverse circumstances of life. But ‘the 
mark of true greatness,’ as Macaulay says, “is to 
prove one’s self superior to his environment and the 
master of his conditions.” 

Is this possible? Aye, by divine grace. For every 
man is the equal of his fellow in this, that his will, his 
conscience, and the Bow of Promise can make him 
more than conqueror. 

In the time of Pericles there was a law in Greece that 
only freemen should devote themselves to art. A slave 
named Creon, who worshiped beauty, wrought in a 
secret place upon a statue of Apollo, while his sister 


38 Wayfarers of the Bible 


Cleone toiled for food. The statue was placed in the 
annual exhibit at Athens, among the works of the 
great masters. The judges approved its excellence; 
but Cleone, refusing to betray her brother, was sen- 
tenced to torture. At this point Creon spoke: “O Peri- 
cles! I am the guilty one! The statue was mine, and I 
am Creon, a slave!” The judges would have con- 
demned him to the dungeon; but Pericles himself in- 
terposed, saying, “There is a law higher than all Greek 
statutes, that he who immortalizes beauty deserves to 
live and labor under the blessing of the gods.” Where- 
upon the crown of olives was accorded to Creon. Aye, 
there is a law above all human statutes, that he who 
conquers adverse conditions, vindicates his right to 
live and to wear the crown of usefulness. God loves 
the man 

“Who breaks his birth’s invidious bar, 

And grasps the skirts of happy chance, 


And breasts the blows of circumstance, 
And grapples with his evil star.” 


The Bow of Promise is God’s overture of help. It 
speaks of Christ, who is God’s Arm stretched out to 
struggling men. And here is the secret of success. 
Nil desperandum, Christo sub Duce! We cannot fail 
if we lean on him. “Will, God, and I can.” The 
Promise beckons to all earnest souls. The last word of 
John Wesley is the word for us, “The best of all is 
Immanuel, God with us!” 


JOURNEY IV 


IN WHICH ABRAHAM AND HIS HOUSEHOLD TAKE THEIR 
DEPARTURE TO AN UNKNOWN COUNTRY 


Tue people of the Chaldean town of Ur had assem- 
bled to witness the departure of one of their townsmen 
on a strange journey. It must have seemed to them “a 
fool’s errand”; for this man, a well-to-do citizen, 
seventy-five years of age, was going forth “‘to a coun- 
try that he knew not.” He was taking his wife, a 
beautiful woman ten years younger than himself, a 
retinue of men-servants and maid-servants, camels 
and asses laden with household gear, with his numer- 
ous flocks and herds. He was accompanied also by his 
old father, Terah, and an orphaned nephew, who was 
destined to be heard from later on. 

The time of parting had come. Friends and kins- 
folk were sobbing on each others’ necks. The word 
was given and the caravan moved out towards the 
West. The people stood at the gateway, straining 
their eyes, until naught could be seen but a dust-cloud 
on the distant horizon. Farewell! 

How little they knew that this departure was des- 
tined to be one of the pivotal points of history! In the 
course of time there would be Pharaohs and Czsars 
going forth with multitudinous armies, amid the blare 
of trumpets and waving of banners, to the conquest of 
nations; but none of these adventures would be com- 


39 


40 Wayfarers of the Bible 


parable in importance with the simple march of yon- 
der clan. 

This movement was remarkable, in the first place,- 
because it was to stand as one of the early factors in 
the development of the race. 

No student of ethnological science can afford to ig- 
nore it. The replenishing of the earth has been ef- 
fected by centrifugal migrations from common cen- 
ters. The first of these, of permanent record, was 
when Cain went forth with his following from the land 
of Eden to the land of Nod. The second was when 
the three sons of Noah set out, a hundred and forty 
years after the Flood, to make their respective settle- 
ments. And the third was this departure of Abraham 
and his clan “unto a place which he should afterward 
receive for an inheritance,’ and from which he was 
destined to influence the history of succeeding ages. 

The movement was remarkable, in the second place, 
because it was divinely ordered and controlled. 

The man in command was distinctly God’s man. He 
set forth at the behest of God: “Get thee out of thy 
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s 
house unto a country that I shall show thee.” 

At the outset he heard the Voice, and in all his long 
itinerary he was obedient to it. He journeyed until he 
came to Haran, where the Voice bade him tarry. 
There his father, Terah, died and was buried. At the 
command of the Voice he thence moved on to 
Shechem, where God renewed his covenant with him, 
showing him the stars of heaven and saying, “So shall 
thy seed be!” Thence he turned his steps to Egypt, 
because “the famine was grievous in the land.” It 


Wayfarers of the Bible 41 


would appear that, in this instance, he did not wait 
upon the Voice; and the result was sin and sorrow. 
In due time, he returned from Egypt to the highlands 
and pitched his tent near Beth-el, “the place of the al- 
tar.” Here his nephew, Lot, parted company with 
him, preferring to settle in the well-watered plains of 
Jordan. The Voice spoke again, and Abraham re- 
moved to Mamre, where he pitched his tent under the 
oak. His following had so increased that he could 
now go forth to war, as a feudal lord, with three hun- 
dred and eighteen retainers. Thence he journeyed to 
the South Country and sojourned in Gerar, where the 
child of promise was born to him and the covenant was 
again renewed, “In thy seed shall all the nations of the 
earth be blessed.”’ And thence to Beersheba, where 
Sarah, his princess, died; and, having no foot of 
ground in possession, he must needs ask a burial-place 
of the children of Heth. Here the patriarch dwelt 
until “he died and was gathered unto his people, an 
old man and full of years,” finding at last a resting- 
place in “the better country, even an heavenly, and 
in the city which hath foundations, whose builder and 
maker is God.” 

In all this life-long journey he waited upon the 
Voice. Again and again it is written, “And the Lord 
spake unto him, saying.” Was this a singular experi- 
ence, or does the Lord still speak to men? It would 
appear that he spake audibly in those days, when, as 
yet, there were no Oracles. He still speaks no less 
really, if less audibly, to those who are willing to hear 
him. 

The Voice is heard in nature; as it is written, 


42 Wayfarers of the Bible 


“There are so many voices and none of them is with- 
out signification.” He that hath ears to hear, let him 
hear! To Mozart the brooks and forests and moun- 
tains seemed ever to be saying, ““Turn me into music.” 
But there are those who hear no voice within the 
voices of flowing brooks and singing birds. 

God speaks in history, also. “Can ye not discern 
the signs of the times?’ Is there no message in the 
turmoil and confusion of the nations? The clang of 
steel and smoke of battle, is that all? Shall we be 
as blind to the logic of events as was Ahimaaz, who 
ran from the battle in the wood of Ephraim to report, 
“T saw a tumult; but I knew not what it was”? 

God speaks from the pages of Holy Writ. “Search 
the Scriptures,” said the great Teacher, “for in them 
ye think ye have eternal life and these are they which 
testify of me.” The Voice is here; articulate as the 
fabled voice of the vocal Memnon was thought to be. 
But the message is for him only who can read between 
the lines. 

God has “spoken unto us,’ moreover and most 
clearly, “in these last days by his Son,” who is ever 
saying, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no 
man cometh unto the Father but by me.” 

All depends upon our attitude. Abraham kept him- 
self in a responsive posture. In the midst of a com- 
munity of nature-worshipers he was an earnest truth- 
seeker, and that although his father, Terah, if the 
Jewish tradition is correct, “was a maker of idols and 
served other gods.” 

If one would hear the Voice he must bow as Elijah 
did on Horeb, until the wind and the earthquake and 


Wayfarers of the Bible 43 


the fire sweep by; then, with his face between his 
knees, he shall hear “the still small Voice.” This is 
the promise to every reverent soul: “Thou shalt hear 
a Voice behind thee, saying, This is the way: walk ye 
am) at.’ 

The migration of Abraham was important, in the 
third place, because of the far-reaching issues that 
flowed out of it. 

As he moved upward along the banks of the Eu- 
phrates, halting or journeying at the behest of the 
Voice, within the fluttering curtains of his tent were 
the destinies of the future Church of God. 

He was the father of the Jewish Church. When in 
his journeyings he came to the headwaters of the 
Jordan and crossed over, he became the bri, the He- 
brew, literally, the “over man.” 

The “call” to this office was given him because he 
was in the line of Shem, on whom the blessing had 
been pronounced, “Jehovah is the God of Shem.” Its 
necessity was due to the fact that the Shemitic race 
was declining from the worship of the true God. A 
family must be selected over whom God should exercise 
a peculiar supervision, preserving the Messianic prom- 
ise which was the nucleus of the future Oracles, and 
transmitting it to future generations. The call was 
to a peculiar privilege, but also to a responsibility com- 
mensurate with it. It was specifically a call to save 
the embers of religion and preserve the hope of the 
coming Christ, who was to deliver the world from sin. 

It is not enough to say that Abraham was the father 
of the Jewish Church; he was the father of the uni- 
versal Church of God. The Church is not two, but one 


44 Wayfarers of the Bible 


in two Economies which are separated by the Cross. 
In that supreme event all the hopes and prophecies of 
the Old Economy converged, as tributaries pour them- 
selves into a reservoir; and from it all the subsequent 
hopes and aspirations and splendid conquests of the 
New Economy have flowed forth. The Christian 
Church bears to Judaism the same relation that the 
flower bears to the bud. The Old Economy was like 
a field wherein the seed-corn awaits the fullness of 
time; the New Economy is the same field ripe and 
ready for the sickle. 

The call of Abraham made him the father of a 
“separated” people; separated to the definite task of 
keeping and transmitting the life-giving truth. The 
call of the Christian Church is the very same. The 
word ekklesia means “called out.” If the followers of 
Christ, now numbering some hundreds of millions, did 
but realize that they are individually and collectively 
“called out” of the world to keep the Messianic hope 
and preach it to the uttermost parts of the earth, the 
tabernacle of God would soon come down among men. 

The departure of Abraham and his clan was remark- 
able, in the fourth place, because it was a blind move- 
ment. 

There are three singular expressions which charac- 
terize it: 

(1) “Not knowing” ;—“He went out not knowing 
whither he went.” The five physical senses, which are 
regarded by the average man as the main sources of 
knowledge, could give him no information as to where 
his pilgrimage would end. 

(2) “As seeing the invisible.” This is the word 


Wayfarers of the Bible 45 


used of Moses when he turned his back on the treas- 
ures of Egypt. The paradox, “seeing the invisible,” 
is solvable only by the man who follows the Voice. 
He perceives such verities as God, whom no man hath 
ever seen or can see with fleshly eyes; and Duty, 
which can only be apprehended by the man who hears 
the “Voice behind him”; and Destiny, which Christ 
alone determines, of whom it is written, “Whom having 
not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him 
not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeak- 
able and full of glory.” The stars spoke to Abraham 
of him in whom all the nations of the earth were to 
be blessed. They prophesied to him of One who 
should save the world from sin; as Christ said, “Abra- 
ham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was 
glad.” 

(3) “By faith.” Faith is the sixth sense, by which 
alone it is possible to perceive spiritual things. So far 
from being credulity, it is as far as possible removed 
from it. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, 
the evidence of things not seen.” It makes the invisi- 
ble substantial, and founds a creed on valid evidence; 
on evidence which is ¢erra firma, stronger than that of 
' the physical senses, because it rests in the Voice of 
God. 

And the journey of Abraham to the unknown coun- 
try was remarkable, finally, as a parable or similitude 
of life. 

He was the father of‘all pilgrims who count them- 
selves not denizens of this world, but travelers going 
through it, “looking for a better country, even an 
heavenly.” 


46 Wayfarers of the Bible 


“I’m a pilgrim and I’m a stranger; 
I can tarry, I can tarry but a night.” 

The man who thinks is bound to conclude that he 
belongs to two worlds. He may ask as he will, “If a 
man die shall he live again?” there is a spirit within 
him which responds, “I shall live and not die!’ There 
is a life beyond. Death, so far from ending all, begins 
all. 

And one who realizes this will be unmoved by the 
current sneer at “other-worldliness.” He solves the 
problem of relative values. The great disparity be- 
tween the life here and the life beyond is ever before 
him. The ratio is that of a line, whereof the one part 
is as an handbreath and the other goes on forever. 
The significance of death is due only to the fact that 
it formulates and crystallizes character, thus determin- 
ing condition in the life beyond. This is the truth of 
the legend on the dial, Omnia vulnerant, ultima necant, 
which may be liberally rendered, “There are many 
things which count, but it is the last that fixes all.” 
Thus runs the proverb, “In the place where the tree 
falleth, there shall it be.” 

Hence the importance of living well the life that is 
here and now. For we can live it only once. There is 
no doubling on our tracks. We have never been this 
way before, and we shall never come this way again. 
Wherefore it behooves us to make the most of it. The 
maxim, “While we live, let us live’ is a wise one if 
rightly interpreted ; that is,let us so invest our time, our 
energies of body and soul, our privileges and oppor- 
tunities, as to make them fit us for an Eternity of 
happy usefulness. 


Wayfarers of the Bible 47 


This is the secret of a successful life: To walk by 
faith as seeing the invisible, hearing the Voice, watch- 
ing the stars of promise, building our altars and pass- 
ing on. To this end the Oracles are given, that we 
may know how to live. And to this end God hath 
spoken unto us by his Son in these last days. He is 
the Logos, the Voice of God, articulated in flesh, that 
men may hear and live through him. 


“So on I go, not knowing, 

I would not if I might; 

Td rather walk in the dark with God 
Than walk alone in the light; 

I'd rather go by faith with Him 
Than go alone by sight.” 


JOURNEY V 


IN WHICH ISAAC, BEARING THE WOOD FOR THE SACRI- 
FICE, CLIMBS UP INTO THE MOUNT OF GOD 


In the home at Beersheba, by the seven wells, Abra- 
ham had settled down to rest. He had been a pilgrim 
and a sojourner since the day when he left Ur of the 
Chaldees at the command, “Go forth unto a country 
that I shall show you.” How grateful, at last, to sit 
with his happy household under his own vine and 
fig-tree ! 

The family was knit together in the fellowship of 
faith. The head of the household was by eminence 
“The Father of the Faithful” and “The Friend of 
God.” His wife, Sarah, though a weak woman in 
many ways, has also been counted worthy of a place in 
the roll-call of heroes, “because she judged him faithful 
who had promised.” It is true her faith had broken 
down once; when an angel appeared at the doorway of 
the tent in Mamre and said to Abraham, “Lo, Sarah 
thy wife shall bear a son.” A sound of incredulous 
laughter from within the tent told that Sarah had 
overheard it. The child of promise was now in the 
home at Beersheba; Isaac, “son of laughter.” How 
they loved him; the child of their old age, in whom 
centered the promise of the covenant, “As the stars of 
heaven, so shall thy seed be!” 

48 


Wayfarers of the Bible 49 


A cloud now hung over this happy home. The 
Voice that Abraham had never disregarded had said, 
“Take thy son, thine only son Isaac, the son whom thou 
lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer 
him there for a burnt offering!’ The faith of the 
Father of the Faithful had now to be put to its ulti- 
mate test. It must go through the crucible that it 
might come forth as gold seven times tried. 

O, the long, long night that followed! It would 
appear that not a word was spoken to Sarah, lest the 
heart of the fond mother might break. In solitude 
the patriarch faced his ordeal. He might ask of him- 
self a thousand questions, but only one could weigh 
in his decision, “Was it really the Voice of God?” That 
settled, there was nothing left but to obey. 

“And Abraham rose up early in the morning and 
saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with 
him, and Isaac his son, and went into the place of 
which the Lord had told him.” Here are volumes in 
a sentence. Not many tragedies are so briefly told. 

It was a three days’ journey from Beersheba to the 
heights of Jebus. Many a man had traveled those 
fifty miles afoot, but never one so wearily as this man. 
The gold-seeker traverses deserts and climbs moun- 
tains joyously to find his Ophir; but one will faint in 
going a mile with sorrow at the end of it. 

It would appear that on the first day, as they skirted 
the edge of the wilderness, no word was spoken. The 
look on the father’s face, perhaps, forbade all converse, 
betraying the fierce struggle within. 

On the second day, as they climbed the foothills, the 
silence was broken: “My father, where is the lamb for 


50 Wayfarers of the Bible 


the burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, 
God will provide himself a lamb.” 

On the third day at sunrise they came in sight of 
the mountain. A rabbinical legend says that it was 
marked by the Shekinah, the mysterious cloud of the 
divine Presence. It was the same cloud that had hung 
so darkly over the home at Beersheba. So they came 
to the appointed place; the altar was built, Isaac was 
bound and laid upon it, and Abraham see forth 
his hand to slay him. 

We pause here to ask, why this must be? Had not 
the faith of Abraham been sufficiently tried before 
this? Not so. It remained to be seen whether he 
really believed in God, in a God who would and could 
interpose, even in the direst extremity, to help him. 
The faith which brought him to the summit of Moriah 
was to be rewarded with a vision which is explained in 
the name Jehovah-jireh; that is, “The Lord will 
provide.” 

The ultimate test of faith is here, Do we believe in 
Providence? In these days of free-lance theology we 
all hold to some sort of God; but the crucial question 
is, Do we believe in a God who can interpose to help 
us? This is the vision of faith. The proverb runs, 
“Tn the mountain of the Lord it shall be seen.” This 
is what Abraham saw: Providence—a God who knew, 
who cared, who interposed to help him. 

I. To see this is to find relief amid the common cares 
and perplexities of life. 

The Law runs on this wise: “Summer and winter, 
seed-time and harvest shall not fail.” The question is 
between that Law and the Miracle of the Loaves. 


Wayfarers of the Bible 1 


Suppose seed-time and harvest should fail, what then? 
If the hungry cry for bread, is there a prayer-answer- 
ing God who will supply it? Is the miracle possible? 
For every answer to prayer is in the nature of a mira- 
cle, since it is a special providence. 

The tendency of present thought is along the lines 
of Evolution; that is, the calm and uninterrupted 
working of natural laws. But the hungry and the 
naked are among us, and the law has not supplied their 
need. What now? Prayer and the miracle! To 
those who go about the streets with thin lips murmur- 
ing “food” and “raiment,” the Great Teacher speaks: 
“Ts it food that ye need? Consider the fowls of the air ; 
they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into 
barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are 
ye not much better than they? Is it raiment that ye 
need? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; 
they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto 
you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 
one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass 
of the field, which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into 
the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of 
little faith?” Here is comfort unspeakable for those 
who have no meal in the barrel nor oil in the cruse. 
This is what Faith sees in the Mount of Vision: 


“Tt may not be your way, 
It may not be my way, 
And yet in his own way 
The Lord will provide.” 


II. And here is strength, also, for such as are pass- 
ing through the deeper troubles of life; who are moved 


52 Wayfarers of the Bible 


to cry, “All thy waves and billows are gone over 
me!” 

The Law in this case is that which the Stoics formu- 
lated and the materialistic evolutionists of our time 
emphasize, namely, “What can’t be cured must be en- 
dured.” The question is between the operation of that 
Law and the proverb, “Man’s extremity is God’s 
opportunity.” Is it true that God “is a help to the 
poor and to the needy in his distress, a refuge 
from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the 
blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the 
wall” ? 

It was this problem which Job answered when, sit- 
ting amid the ruins of his prosperity, forsaken by his 
friends and tortured with physical pain, he cried, 
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him!” This 
was the truth which God revealed to Daniel when, 
faithful in the teeth of danger, he said “My God hath 
sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths that they 
have not hurt me,” to which the chronicler adds, “No 
manner of hurt was found upon him, because he be- 
lieved in his God.” And this was the vision which 
came to Paul after a life spent in perils oft by land 
and sea; a dim-eyed, pain-racked prisoner in chains, 
he found it possible to say, “I know him whom I have 
believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep 
that which I have committed unto him against that 
day!” 

This truth of Providence is the last and crowning 
vision of faith. None but those who have climbed the 
mountain of sacrifice and built the altar of Jehovah- 
jireh there can sing: 


Wayfarers of the Bible Sh 


“Pain’s furnace heat within me quivers; 
God’s breath upon the fire does blow; 
And all the heart within me shivers 
And trembles in the fiery glow; 

And yet I whisper ‘As God will, 

And in his fiercest fires holds still.” 


III. The climax of this truth is realized in times of 
spiritual distress. For, when all is said, the deepest 
longing of the average man is a spiritual longing, 
which expresses itself on this wise, ““What shall I do 
to be saved?” 

The Law here is, ““Whatsoever a man soweth that 
shall he also reap,” and, “The soul that sinneth it 
shall die.” The question is between that Law and the 
Gospel, which is the highest expression of special 
Providence; its terms being, God can and does inter- 
pose to save a sinner from the shame, the bondage, 
and the penalty of sin. 

The key to the vision in Mount Moriah is in the 
words of Christ: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to 
see my day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8: 
56). The Gospel was what Abraham saw in the 
Mount of God. A man of like passions with other 
men, a conscious sinner having within himself a certain 
fearful looking-for of judgment and desiring to know, 
above all things, how God can be just and yet the jus- 
tifier of the ungodly, he found his answer in a fore- 
gleam of the atonement; he saw Christ afar off. 

In the outline of this narrative we behold a wonder- 
ful parallel to the Story of the Cross. As Abraham 
set out in the early morning with Isaac his son to go 
unto the mount of sacrifice, so did Christ come in the 


54 Wayfarers of the Bible 


fullness of time to become a whole burnt offering for 
sin. 

It is written that in the three days’ journey from 
Beersheba to Mount Moriah “They went both of them 
together.” So went the Father and the Son together 
all the way to Calvary. It was not three days but 
thirty weary years of journeying toward the altar of 
sacrifice; and all the while Jesus could say, “I am not 
alone; the Father is with me.” 

In the grief that burdened the heart of Abraham we 
discern a faint figure of the Father’s pain in yielding 
up his only-begotten Son. There are those who say, 
“God cannot suffer, because he hath neither body, 
parts nor passions.” But who shall thus hang the 
plummet or lay the measuring line to the word “so” 
in the saying, “God so loved the world that he gave 
his only-begotten Son” ? The message that came to 
Abraham was like a merciless beating upon his heart- 
strings: “Take now thy son—thine only son—Isaac, 
the son of laughter—thy son whom thou lovest—and 
offer him!” The night during which he pondered on 
that needs-be must be measured over against the eter- 
nity in which God contemplated the giving of his only 
Son. And there is a terrific suggestion of heroic grief 
in the fact that Abraham carried in one hand the knife 
and in the other the brazier. Inasmuch as there was 
no escape from the necessity laid upon him, it be- 
hooved him thus to face it. 

And observe also the acquiescence of Isaac, who 
“bare the wood of the burnt offering.” So Christ gave 
himself. During the years of his ministry he was 
under the shadow of the cross. His life’s journey was 


Wayfarers of the Bible 55 


over Via Dolorosa. He knew what awaited him; he 
“set his face steadfastly” toward it. 

The agony of the hour when the final revelation was 
made to Isaac is passed over in silence. It was on the 
third day when Abraham said to his servants, “Tarry 
ye here while I and the lad go yonder.”” Then some- 
where as they climbed the mountain path, Abraham 
said (O, who shall tell the heart-breaking sorrow of 
it?), “My son, thou art the lamb for sacrifice! It must 
needs be!’ So at the gateway of Gethsemane, Jesus 
said to his disciples, “Tarry ye here while I go yon- 
der’: and passing into the deeper shadows of the Gar- 
den he faced the full, final, overwhelming announce- 
ment of the necessity that was put upon him. He was 
not alone in that supreme hour; the Father was with 
him. All that was human in him cried out against 
the cup of purple death that was pressed to his lips, 
“OQ my Father, if it be possible, let this pass from 
me!” Then came the great, final surrender, “Thy will 
be done!” So he was led as a lamb to the slaugh- 
ter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he 
opened not his mouth. 

But here the similitude breaks down. There is no 
perfect analogy to any of the great mysteries of faith: 
none for the Trinity; none for the Incarnation; none 
for the Atonement. The object-lesson on Mount 
Moriah was closed when Abraham stood with his up- 
lifted knife. The Voice said, “Lay not thy hand upon 
the lad!” The ram caught in the thicket must needs be 
brought in to complete the figure of the sacrifice. On 
Calvary the uplifted hand was not stayed. Christ suf- 
fered on, despite the fact that his enemies were crying, 


56 Wayfarers of the Bible 


“If Thou be Christ, come down from the cross!” and 
that legions of angels were hovering there to rescue. 
him. He suffered on until the Gospel found its con- 
summation in a full Atonement, when with a loud voice 
he cried, “It is finished!” 

This is the vision of Providence which Abraham 
saw. Not until a man perceives the full significance 
of the Atonement as a divine interposition in our be- 
half, does he know the real meaning of Providence. 
“Tn the mountain of the Lord it shall be seen!” What 
shall be seen? This, that the arm of the Lord is not 
“shortened that it cannot save.” Here is the truth 
which so-called science calls “foolishness,” because it 
is an apparent contravention of the uninterrupted 
processes of natural law. Yet just here is the very heart 
of the Gospel. As it is written, “What the law could 
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God 
sending his only-begotten Son in the likeness of sin- 
ful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh 
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled 
in us.” 

But who hath believed our report and to whom is 
the arm of the Lord revealed? The arm of the Lord, 
thrust in to solve the question of insensate law vs. 
Providence, is Christ, himself the Incarnation of om- 
nipotent grace; this is God’s arm made bare in the 
Atonement of the cross. Abraham saw this afar off. 
To us, it is presented as an historic fact, accentuated 
by the story of nineteen centuries of Christian civili- 
zation. And still there are those who refuse to be- 
lieve in Providence! “O foolish Galatians, who hath 
bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth, be- 


Wayfarers of the Bible 57 


fore whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set 
forth, crucified among you?” 

An old Jewish proverb runs, ‘““The secret of Messiah 
is the secret of man.” To see this vision in the moun- 
tain is to solve the problem of life. But this spiritual 
fact is spiritually discerned. He alone who has eyes 
of faith can see it. 


JOURNEY VI 


IN WHICH JACOB AND HIS FAMILY, NOT WITHOUT MIS- 
GIVINGS, DESCEND INTO EGYPT 


WE shall make no headway in the study of history 
unless, at the outset, we have an adequate conception 
of the divine plan. All things are working together 
toward a definite end; and that end is the deliverance 
of the world from sin. In the logic of passing events, 
this point grows clearer every day; as Tennyson 
sings, 


“Yet I doubt not through the ages one eternal purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of 
the suns.” 


A man on his journey came to an archway on which 
was written, “The House of History”; and, the door 
being open, he saw one sitting at a loom, casting a 
shuttle to and fro. The fabric in the loom seemed to 
be all threads and thrums, because the man saw only 
the wrong side of it. This is the Parable:—The 
weaver is God; the flying shuttle is time; the fabric 
is a royal robe which the Weaver is making for his 
Son who is destined to reign from the river unto the 
ends of the earth. 

We are to consider, now, the eventful life of Jacob 
as an arc in the great circle of that purpose, the pur- 

58 


Wayfarers of the Bible 59 


pose which comprehends all history and has for its 
center the Messianic triumph in the Golden Age. 

At the outset, observe the divine process in the Mak- 
ing of a Man. . 

God wanted a man; where should he find him? In 
a shepherd’s hut at Lahai-roi there were two broth- 
ers, Jacob and Esau; one of whom was chosen. Why 
Jacob rather than Esau? The question must be ad- 
dressed to God himself. Whether he answers is an- 
other matter: for, being sovereign, he reserves the 
right to be silent. If he speaks at all, it will probably 
be to say, “Be still and know that I am God!” 

One thing is sure, Jacob was not chosen because of 
any personal merit. A sculptor who would make a 
statue begins by choosing a block of flawless marble; 
but no such choice is possible to God when he would 
make a man, since “all have sinned and there is no 
difference.” He must make his masterpieces out of 
poor material or not at all. 

In the character of Jacob there were two conspicu- 
ous faults. One was Avarice. His name means “the 
supplanter.”” He was a sharp bargainer, getting the 
better of his brother, his kinspeople and his fellow 
shepherds, and not above striving to make a hard bar- 
gain even with God. The other fault in his character 
was Cowardice. He was by nature a timid man; and 
this was disclosed and emphasized by the wraiths of 
his ill-doing that ever pursued him. 

The task of making a man out of such common clay 
would seem to be a forlorn hope, were not this matter 
in the hands of God. He will put Jacob through a 
course of discipline that will develop him. In the proc- 


60 Wayfarers of the Bible 


ess there will be much of suffering, but the end will 
crown the work; for Jacob will ultimately find his 
place in the all-embracing plan of God. 

The question, “Does God send trouble?” is the 
smallest question that was ever asked. God will send 
anything that may be needed in order to qualify a man 
for service. In the case of Jacob it will be like the 
polishing of the diamond, the hackling of flax, the har- 
rowing of a field. The man will groan under his bur- 
den of affliction, but it will prove the making of him. 
For “as night to stars, woe lustre gives to man.” He 
will be afflicted in his person, in his domestic relations, 
in his dealings with friends and neighbors; pain, sor- 
row, and weariness will be his portion; he will be 
beaten and buffeted, until moved to cry, “Few and 
evil have been the days of the years of my pilgrim- 
age!” But he will have no just ground of complaint 
if the desired end is accomplished. The clew of the 
problem of suffering is not “Wherefore?” but 
“Whereunto?” It is written, “No affliction for the 
present seemeth to be joyous but grievous; but in the 
end it worketh the peaceable fruit of righteousness 
unto them that are exercised thereby.” We shall see 
Jacob coming out of his experience, as gold from the 
furnace, to be crowned a “prince of God.” 

Let us observe, further, the divine process in the 
Making of a Family. 

For, not the individual but the family is the unit of 
history, as in the membership of the Church of God. 
It is written, ‘He setteth the solitary in families.” The 
covenant is made with a man “and his children after 
him.” 


Wayfarers of the Bible 61 


It was God’s intent from the beginning to set apart 
a household that should be the depositary of the Ora- 
cles and by whom the Messianic hope should be trans- 
mitted to future ages. In the chronicles of England, 
the Crown, as an imperial trust, has thus descended, 
for a period of eight hundred years, from William the 
Conqueror to Edward VII, by a narrowing process 
through Plantagenets, Tudors, and other households 
to this day. 

In the family of Adam the selection fell on Seth; in 
the family of Seth, upon Noah; in the family of Noah, 
upon Shem; in the family of Shem, upon Abraham; 
and in the family of Abraham, upon Jacob. The birth- 
tight followed the call and the Messianic trust was 
thus passed on to future generations. At the time of 
our narrative the household of Jacob numbered seventy 
souls. He had twelve sons, one of whom, Judah, was 
to be presently chosen as the depositary of the sacred 
trust. As this family is to play so important a part 
in the consummation of the great purpose, it must ob- 
viously be prepared for it. 

How will God fit that family for its place? Again 
by discipline. It was not possible that Jacob should 
suffer alone ; since no man liveth or dieth unto himself. 
His household must suffer with him. 

It is apparent, even to a casual reader, how darkly 
the shadow of sin and sorrow fell over the home at 
Lahai-roi. It was twenty odd years since Joseph had 
been made away with by his brethren. The cry of his 
father on seeing the blood-stained coat, “My son is 
rent in pieces!’ had ever since been ringing in that 
shepherd’s hut. That was the “skeleton in the closet.” 


62 Wayfarers of the Bible 


The guilty secret had been shut up like a pent fury in 
the breasts of these brethren; vain remorse had embit- 
tered their lives. This was in part the training of that 
household for its place. For sin itself is included in 
the “all things” which “work together” for the per- 
fecting of the mighty plan. And “all’s well that ends 
well.” 

We observe, still further, the divine process in the 
Making of a Nation; for God has to do with nations, 
as with families and individuals, 

The people of Norway have recently elected a new 
king, who takes the name of a sovereign who reigned 
five hundred years ago. In casting their ballots they 
may have supposed that the choice wholly rested with 
them; but the heart of both kings and people is “in 
the hand of the Lord, as are the rivers of water.” 

And how will God make of Jacob and his household 
the nation which he proposes to use in the furthering 
of his purpose? The process begins with the setting 
out for Egypt, the Journey now before us. This event 
is fraught with far-reaching consequences. It is the 
fourth of the historic migrations of the race.* 

By a curious combination of circumstances the 
wagons had been provided for his transportation and 
were waiting at his door. The old shepherd had been 
informed that Joseph was yet alive and was governor 
over Egypt, and that the waiting wagons had been 
sent to carry him thither: “and his heart fainted, for 
he believed them not!” 

* The first was the departure of Cain and his tribe to the land 
of Nod. The second, that of the three sons of Noah from 
Ararat. The third, that of Abraham “to a country that he 
knew not.” 


Wayfarers of the Bible 63 


It would appear that he could not finally determine 
upon this journey until he had gone to Beer-sheba, 
near by, to consult with God. He offered a sacrifice 
there; and “the Lord spake to him in a vision of the 
night.” His heart was strengthened in this vision by a 
fourfold promise : 

First, “Fear not, for I will go down with thee.” At 
the beginning of the career of Jacob he had seen a 
vision at Bethel, a ladder on which angels were going 
up with his prayers and coming down with blessings: 
and then and there, with the instinct of a bargainer, he 
had said, “If thou wilt be with me and keep me in the 
way that I should go and give me bread to eat and 
raiment to put on, then shall Jehovah be my God.” 
He had not always lived up to the terms of that cove- 
nant; but God had unceasingly been true to it. And 
now God renews the assurance: “I will be with thee.” 

Second, “And Joseph shall put his hand upon thine 
eyes.” Here was a mighty appeal to the bond of af- 
fection which had ever existed between Jacob and his 
favorite son. It was above a score of years since he 
had seen him. How his heart must have leaped at the 
thought of this meeting, and in the assurance that 
Joseph should abide with him to the end and close his 
eyes! 

Third, “T will there make of thee a great nation.” 
Here is the promise given to Abraham, who, over and 
over, when his faith failed him, looked at the starry 
heavens and heard the Voice, “So shall thy seed be!” 
God has not forgotten; but he makes no haste, since 
“the eternal years are his.” There must be a long 
period of pain and adversity, of bondage and weary 


64 Wayfarers of the Bible 


wandering, before the realization of that promise; but 
the time was coming when Balaam should stand upon 
the heights of Peor, with the tents of the nation gleam- 
ing before him, and cry, “Who can count the dust of 
Israel ?” 

Fourth, “I will surely bring thee up again.” In 
other words, Egypt was not to be the abiding-place of 
Jacob’s posterity. A “promised land” awaited them. 
Egypt was but the University where they were to pur- 
sue the curriculum which should fit them for their 
life-work. In due time they would make their way out 
of Egypt to become a great nation; which in turn 
should pass on through the centuries, taking the Ora- 
cles as a sacred trust, to reject its own Messiah in full- 
ness of time and to be thenceforth a nation without a 
king, a country, a government or a capital city—a 
nation of wanderers upon the face of the earth—yet 
ever segregated and possessed of an inextinguishable 
life. 

So the wagon-train set forth from Beersheba; the 
old man, with his household and retinue of servants 
and retainers, his flocks and herds and household gear. 
And they journeyed on until they came to the border 
of Egypt. There Joseph came to meet them; the 
Grand Vizier in his chariot, arrayed in robes of royal 
state, to meet an old shepherd coming from the 
parched lands of Canaan. They had not seen each 
other since that fatal day when Joseph went out to 
watch his flocks. Time had wrought great changes; 
but it had not dimmed the memory of the past nor 
diminished their mutual love. 

The story is told simply but eloquently: “And 


Wayfarers of the Bible 65 


Joseph went to his father and fell on his neck and wept 
a good while. And Jacob said, Now let me die since 
I have seen thy face!” 

If the narrative, just here, were reduced to terms of 
the present day, it would read like a sermon on filial 
piety. A man who came to New York City to make 
his fortune, years ago, and has so prospered that he is 
a recognized leader in our great industries and enter- 
prises, hears that his father is coming to town. Will 
he receive him with open arms? Or, will he shrink a 
trifle from walking arm in arm with the farmer in 
homespun, sunburned, and with callous hands, unfa- 
miliar with the conventionalities of social life, who 
pauses to gaze at the tall buildings, and look in at the 
windows along the street? 

Then the wagon-train moved on toward the Capital 
where Jacob was “presented at Court.” Call in your 
dramatist and let him paint it. Scene: the most mag- 
nificent audience room on earth. Dramatis Persone: 
Pharaoh and his noblemen; Joseph, the Grand Vizier; 
Group of Shepherds; Jacob, an aged countryman. 

And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, “How old art thou?” 

And Jacob said, “The days of the years of my pil- 
grimage are an hundred and thirty years; few and evil 
have they been.” 

And Pharaoh said unto the brethren of Joseph, 
“What is your occupation?” 

And they answered, “Thy servants be shepherds. 
For to sojourn in thy land are we come; because thy 
servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the fam- 
ine is sore in the land of Canaan.” 

And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, ‘“The land of Egypt 


66 Wayfarers of the Bible 


is before thee: in the best of the land make thy father 
and thy brethren to dwell.” 

So to the land of Goshen they betook themselves, to 
watch their flocks and multiply and make history. 
And there they dwelt a separated race, separated by 
the fact that in the eyes of the Egyptians their pastoral 
calling made them an impure caste. They were thus 
providentially prevented from intermarrying or inter- 
mingling with the idolaters who surrounded them. 

So passed a period of seventeen years, when a mes- 
senger came in haste to Joseph, saying, “Behold thy 
father is sick.” The royal chariot sped to Goshen and 
Joseph was at the bedside. His father “strengthened 
himself and sat up’; and leaning upon the top of his 
staff—possibly the very staff with which he had 
crossed Jabbok in the olden days—he blessed Joseph 
and his sons and brethren. When, in that historic bene- 
diction, he came to the blessing on Judah his dim eyes 
must surely have brightened, for the prophecy of 
Messiah was upon his lips: “Judah is a lion’s whelp! 
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a law- 
giver from between his feet until Shiloh come; and 
unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” The 
Lion of the Tribe of Judah! Wonderful Counselor, 
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 
This is that Shiloh who, being lifted up, was destined 
to draw all nations unto him. Thus dimly was the 
mighty plan unveiled before the patriarch, ere Joseph 
bent over and closed his eyes. 

It is important that, in reading history, we should 
bear in mind the “one far-off divine event to which the 
whole creation moves.” The going down of Jacob and 


Wayfarers of the Bible 67 


his household into Egypt was a movement of vast im- 
portance as a factor in the preparation for the coming 
of Christ. In fact all passing events are but incidents 
leading on to that dénouement. The actors are mere 
lay figures. The pilgrims who set out in that wagon- 
train from Lahai-roi had no thought of making his- 
tory. How little did the Pilgrim Fathers who set sail 
from Delft-Haven dream of the part which they were 
to take in the evolution of our republic! In the pas- 
sage of the centuries, by the logic of events, the divine 
purpose grows clearer and clearer; and we perceive 
how all things, even those which we call happenings, 
are conspiring toward the ultimate triumph of divine 
grace. Maranatha! He cometh! Make way for the 
King; the Lion of the Tribe of Judah who shall bring 
in the truce of God. Then the tabernacle of God shall 
be with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they 
shall be his people, and God himself shall be their God. 


JOURNEY VII 


IN WHICH MOSES FLEES FOR HIS LIFE TO THE DESERT 
OF MIDIAN 


Ir was two hundred years and more since Jacob had 
gone down into Egypt with his wagon-train. Mean- 
while his family, then but seventy souls, had grown to 
the number of two millions, or about one-third of the 
entire population of Egypt. To prevent any further 
increase, a decree was issued requiring all male chil- 
dren of the Hebrews to be cast upon the waters of the 
Nile. This will not be regarded as incredible by any 
student of the Oriental despotisms of that time or of 
the anti-Semitic atrocities in Russia to-day. 

One of the Hebrew children, destined to play an im- 
portant part in history, was saved from that ancient 
massacre by a chain of circumstances which suggested 
his name, Moses, “child of the water.” It is a true say- 
ing, “A man is immortal until his work is done.” To 
every man is assigned a place in the universal plan; 
and if he does not live at cross-purposes with that plan, 
he will surely find himself providentially adjusted to it. 

The lifetime of Moses was a hundred and twenty 
years; and this was divided into three equal parts. It 
is worthy of note that two-thirds of his entire life was 
passed in getting ready for the other third. Our pur- 
pose here is to trace his equipment for service; and 

68 


Wayfarers of the Bible 69 


therein we shall see how a man is educated for his 
place in the plan of God. 

The first period of forty years was passed at Court. 
The palace was his academy. As the adopted son of 
Pharaoh’s daughter he was heir-presumptive to the 
throne. His was an enviable lot. He dwelt in the 
midst of royal luxury, having the advantage of all the 
training which would naturally be provided for a 
youth with so brilliant an outlook before him. 

Stephen in his defense before the Sanhedrin says, 
that Moses “was learned in all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians and was mighty in word and deed” (Acts 
7:22). It was formerly the fashion for the destructive 
critics to claim that Moses could not have written the 
Pentateuch because the art of writing was unknown 
in his time. But the man with the spade came along 
and put that argument to shame, by unearthing the 
cities where Moses spent his youth. It was thus made 
to appear that mechanics, art, science and philosophy, 
jurisprudence and literature were at a high stage of 
excellence in those days. There was a University 
in the royal city of On, which was quite com- 
parable with our most famous institutions. Not a 
few of the founders of the historic culture of Greece 
received their early training in the Egyptian schools. 
Pythagoras was educated in Thebes, Herodotus in 
Hieropolis, Thales in Memphis, and Solon in the Uni- 
versity of Sais. The ruins of a great public library are 
shown, having on its archway the inscription “Dis- 
pensary of the Soul.” The Egypt of Moses’ time 
stood in the forefront of civilization. Her artisans 
were acquainted with hydraulic engineering; a water- 


70 Wayfarers of the Bible 


course was opened between Bubastis and the Red Sea 
by Rameses II, at an expense of one hundred and 
twenty thousand lives and treasure incalculable, which 
gave to the French engineer, Lesseps, the suggestion 
of the Suez Canal. “No art of writing in Egypt’? 
Her people covered the walls of their homes and tombs 
and temples with inscriptions, which the dry air and 
drifting sands have kept legible to this day. In the 
marshy grounds along the Nile grew the papyrus 
(whence our word “paper”) which made writing a 
common art. A Golden Age of ancient literature 
was the reign of the Pharaoh of the oppression, fif- 
teen centuries before the Christian Era. The court li- 
brarian at that time was Kagabu, illustrious as a nov- 
elist and poet. An epic poem is extant by Pentaur 
which celebrates the prowess of Rameses the Great; 
and a complete novel called “The Story of Two Broth- 
ers,” probably the oldest work of fiction in the world, 
which was written by Enna for the entertainment of 
a prince who afterwards perished with his host in the 
Red Sea. “No art of writing in those days”? It is 
obvious that if the destructive critics would give any 
permanence to the value of their arguments against 
the valid claims of the Scriptures, they must enjoin 
the man with the spade. The logic of events is the 
best defender of the word of God. 

But the education of Moses was not only in the 
province of books; in the necessity of the case he was 
trained to be a man of affairs. As prospective ruler of 
the people he must be familiar with their laws. And 
the Egyptians had an elaborate code. In the Imperial 
Library at Paris is shown a fragment of the Maxims 


Wayfarers of the Bible 71 


of Ptah-hotep, an extended treatise on ethics. The rule 
of right living is laid down in the word Maat, “the 
straight and inflexible line.” By the tutors and gov- 
ernors in charge of the heir-presumptive it was in- 
tended that this legal training should qualify him for 
_ his place at the head of the Egyptian Government; in 

fact, however, this was to be subsidized for use in an- 
other and larger place which had been prepared for 
him in divine providence, when he should become the 
law-giver of Israel and the intermediary of the Deca- 
logue, the one perfect, divine, ethical symbol of the 
ages. 

And Moses must have received, also, an extensive 
training in statecraft and diplomacy; since in his in- 
tended office he would be brought into political rela- 
tions with other kingdoms and governments. It is af- 
firmed by Josephus that he was, furthermore, ap- 
pointed to a place in command of the army and in that 
capacity led a successful expedition against the Ethi- 
opians. The time was coming when, in the leadership 
of Israel, his knowledge as to the proper equipment 
and manipulation of an army would prove invaluable 
to him. The man who is destined to a position of com- 
manding influence must know more than books; he 
must know how to do things. He is doubly armed for 
service who is both a scholar and a practical man. 

Further still, Moses was initiated into the mysteries 
of the Egyptian religion. The great temples of 
Thebes, Karnak, Dendara, and Memphis, whose ruins 
are the wonder of the world, were probably standing 
in those days. What visions of splendor their names 
suggest! In those temples the Principle of Life was 


72 Wayfarers of the Bible 


worshiped under the image of Ammon-Ra, the sun-god. 
All life was regarded as sacred: the bull, the crocodile, 
the luminous-eyed cat, the serpent, the ibis, and the 
beetle, received divine honors. The youth in the palace 
was prepared for leadership in the established religion 
and in due time was made a priest of Osiris. He rode 
in his state chariot with the processions which moved, 
between long avenues of sphinxes, to the shrine of 
Ammon-Ra. He made himself acquainted with the 
rites and ceremonies which were recorded in the forty- 
five sacred books. The religion of Egypt is dead long 
ago; its sacred books are known only as they are de- 
ciphered from the mummy crypts; its temples are in 
ruins; the monuments of Egypt have outlived her 
gods. 

How long could the life of Moses continue in this 
way? The time would surely come when he must 
choose between Ammon-Ra and the God of his fathers. 
The time did come; and his decision is recorded thus: 
“By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused 
to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing 
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than 
to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming 
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treas- 
ures of Egypt.” It was a notable choice and destined 
to be followed by stupendous results. 

This was the turning point in his life. On awaking 
from his luxurious dreams of royal pomp and power 
he turned his thoughts to his oppressed countrymen. 
“It came into his heart to visit them.” He went out 
and “looked upon their burdens,” and his heart was 
stirred within him. In the atmosphere of the palace 


Wayfarers of the Bible 73 


he had felt little or no concern about them; and proba- 
bly his means of observation were few. But now he 
saw them under the whip of scorpions. “Their lives 
were bitter.” He resolved on action. There were 
above two millions of them; why should they not win 
their freedom? He would lead them in a glorious 
insurrection. 

Then occurred the mistake of his life. On seeing 
one of his brethren suffer wrong, he defended and 
avenged him; he smote the taskmaster and buried him 
in the sand. “For he supposed that his brethren 
would understand how God by his hand would deliver 
them.” But they understood not. Alas! they had been 
dulled to their pain by long bondage, so that they 
merely resented his interference. His precipitancy 
was like that of old John Brown of Ossawatomie, who, 
with a brain unsettled by the wrongs of slavery, led a 
forlorn hope at Harper’s Ferry, where, barricaded be- 
hind the doors of the engine-house, he fought against 
hopeless odds, until one of his sons lay dead and an- 
other dying at his feet. It was, indeed, the blunder of 
a crazy man! But God can overrule blunders for the 
ultimate good; when our armies were marching a little 
later in the war for freedom, they kept time to the 
battle-hymn, 


“John Brown’s body lies a-moldering in the grave, 
But his soul goes marching on.” 


The rumor of Moses’s adventure having come to the 
ears of the authorities, he was obliged to flee for his 
life. Redhanded, with a price on his head, he betook ~ 
himself out of harm’s way. Following the shore of the 


74, Wayfarers of the Bible 


Red Sea around by the Gulf of Akaba he came to a 
land of desolation; where, wearied with his eight days’ 
journey, he sat upon the curb of a well. 

As he sat there, his soul was perplexed. No doubt 
he reviewed the past. What an outlook had been his; 
and here he sat, a homeless fugitive! The romance of 
his dream had vanished. “The future is all dark be- 
fore me,” he thought; “I hoped to enfranchise my 
people. I acted on impulse; but I meant well. And, 
behold, I have only my labor for my pains. The peo- 
ple have no spirit left in them; they have no desire to 
be free. I wash my hands of their affairs. I have had 
enough of reform. Henceforth I will interfere with 
no man’s quarrel.” 

As he meditated thus, he was conscious of the ap- 
proach of a group of water-carriers, maidens with 
pitchers on their heads. Dimly and without interest he 
saw them dipping their pitchers in the well. Then 
came a sound of hurrying footsteps and a sudden cry 
for help! A company of hostile shepherds had at- 
tacked the water-carriers ; instantly Moses was himself 
again. His eager spirit returned. All his fine resolu- 
tions of non-interference went to the winds. Chivalry 
to the rescue! He laid about him with his staff and put 
the enemy to flight. Thus did he show himself, in 
Chaucer’s words, “a very parfit gentil knight.” 

This was the beginning of the second forty years of 
his education. As the palace had been his Academy, 
so now the desert was to be his University. One of 
those water-carriers became his wife; and, in the em- 
ploy of her father Reuel, he settled down to a shep- 
herd’s life. 


Wayfarers of the Bible 75 


It was a strange contrast to his eventful and luxur- 
ious life at Court. Here nothing happened. In the 
morning he led his flock to pastures and brought them 
back at evening to the fold. It was a monotonous 
round of simple tasks ; “as tedious as a twice-told tale, 
vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.” 

Had he forgotten? Was the old life indeed a closed 
book? In his solitude among the hills did memory fall 
asleep and conscience die? Had the war-horse of his 
ambition been hopelessly harnessed to a treadmill? Or 
did he, ever and anon, wonder what his foster-mother 
was doing in the palace? Did he hear again the priests 
chanting in the Temple of Osiris? Were his ears 
pierced, in the night-watches, by the cry of bondmen 
under the whip of the scorpions? O, he could not 
have wholly forgotten! Else why did he name his 
first-born Gershom, meaning, ‘“‘Banishment”? 

The weary curriculum of that desert life was an 
essential part of his preparation for service. There is 
no university like the solitude. ‘“There’s wit there, 
ye'll get there, ye’ll find nae ither where.” 

For one thing, he was learning himself. In the cares 
of public life he had had little opportunity to look 
within. Now there is time to think; and the more he 
thinks, the more intimately does he become acquainted 
with the man Moses. He grows distrustful of himself ; 
and, in the calm communion of nature, tempers his fiery 
spirit. So well does he master this lesson, that, when 
the forty years of this humdrum life are over we shall 
find him wearing a new name, “the Meekest of Men.” 

And here, too, he is learning God. In the shadow 
of the hills he lifts his heart on high. It is here that 


76 Wayfarers of the Bible 


he gets that great conception of the divine hand in 
human affairs, which is crystallized in “the Song of 
Moses” (Ps. 90). “Lord, thou hast been our dwell- 
ing place in all generations. Before the mountains 
were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the 
earth and the world, even from everlasting to ever- 
lasting thou art God. . . . Let thy work appear unto 
thy servants, and thy glory unto their children; And 
let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and 
establish thou the work of our hands upon us: yea, the 
work of our hands establish thou it!’ 

And, further, in this desert life he frames an ade- 
quate thought of duty. He discovers his place in the 
plan of God. He knows now that his mistake was 
precipitancy ; he begins to perceive the importance of 
time as a factor in the problem of success. How much 
better if he had not taken matters into his own hands 
that day! He will wait henceforth upon the Lord; 
and the time will come when God will meet him at the 
burning bush and say, “It is the fullness of time! 
I AM THAT I AM sendeth you. Go back to Egypt 
and say unto Pharaoh, Let my people go!” 


JOURNEY VIII 


IN WHICH THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL QUIT FOREVER 
THE HOUSE OF THEIR BONDAGE 


A MAN from the desert of Midian presented himself 
at the Egyptian Court demanding the immediate 
emancipation of two million slaves. His words were, 
“Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Let my people 
go!” 

And Pharaoh answered, “Who is Jehovah? I know 
Ammon-Ra; I know Isis and Osiris, and all the gods 
of our Pantheon ; but who is Jehovah?” 

The man from the desert said, “He shall speak for 
himself.” 

In his hand was a shepherd’s crook; he raised it and 
the battle of the gods began. The Nile ran red as 
blood and stank. The River-god was put to shame! 

He waved his rod again; and frogs came up from 
the river even into the bedchambers and the kneading- 
troughs of the people. The frog-headed god had 
turned upon his worshipers! 

He waved it again; and the air swarmed with gnats 
and beetles. Their scarabeus became a bane and a 
weariness unto them! 

He waved it again; and behold, there was a murrain 
on the cattle of the field! The god Apis could not help 
himself or them! 

He waved it again; and the priests and magicians, 

77 


78 Wayfarers of the Bible 


the ministers of their religion, were smitten with boils 
and blains, and walked before them as a laughing- 
stock ! 

He waved it again; a tempest of hail fell upon the 
sacred leeks and onions! 

He waved it again; and the air swarmed with lo- 
custs. Did the people worship Life? They should 
have enough of it! 

He waved it again; and the light of heaven was ex- 
tinguished. A night that could be felt brooded over 
the land. It was as if Ammon-Ra, the sun-god, had 
been smitten in the face! 

Yet, once more; and from the homes of Egypt rose 
a crescendo of grief. Death smote them on every side, 
“from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat upon his 
throne, even unto the first-born of the maidservant 
that sat behind the mill.” The heir-apparent to the 
throne, who was worshiped as the impersonation of 
Deity, lay dead in the palace! Alas, for the gods! 

This was “that night of Jehovah.” So did he make 
the gods of the Pantheon a hissing and a by-word. 
Was it strange that Pharaoh was moved to heed the 
demand, “Let my people go” ? 

At midnight they stood harnessed and ready. Dur- 
ing the weary weeks of that battle royal they had been 
forewarned and forearmed; so on the set night of the 
fourteenth of Nisan they were waiting for the signal. 
The blood of the sacrificial lamb had been sprinkled 
on their doorposts. They gathered around their pas- 
chal tables, staff in hand, sandals under foot, and 
girded about their loins. Then came the signal: a 
shriek of sorrow piercing the night air. The fathers 


Wayfarers of the Bible 79 


grasped their staves with a firmer hand, the mothers 
gathered their little children in their arms, and, amid 
the panic of Egypt’s despair, they set forth: two mil- 
lions of slaves going to meet their destiny. This was 
the Fifth of the historic Migrations. It was an émeute 
such as was never seen before or since; six hundred 
thousand men with their wives and children going out 
of a land paralyzed by sudden calamity. Strangely 
delivered ; whither bound? 

As they set forth, a singular cloud appeared in the 
heavens and moved on before them. It glowed like a 
nebula. The light faded with the breaking day, but 
the cloud remained. In the years before them they 
were to grow familiar with that “pillar of cloud by 
day and of fire by night.” They called it “the Angel 
of Jehovah”; “the Shekinah”; “the Presence’’; “the 
most excellent Glory.” It was the abiding symbol of 
the Covenant which God had made with Adam in the 
protevangel, “The seed of woman shall bruise the ser- 
pent’s head”; and afterward with the patriarchs, Seth, 
and Noah, and Shem, and Abraham, and Jacob. It 
was always the Covenant of the coming Christ. It 
gave assurance that, however God might tarry, he had 
not forgotten that in the fullness of time Immanuel 
was to appear to deliver the world from sin. 

It is scarcely necessary to say that the truth of the 
narrative is called in question by the destructive crit- 
ics. In fact, and as a matter of course, the historicity 
of every part of the early Scriptures is thus called in 
question, for no apparent reason save that it is a por- 
tion of the Word of God. 

In this particular case the denial is founded partly 


80 Wayfarers of the Bible 


on the fact that there is no other record of the Exodus. 
But why should there be? The fact that there were 
two millions of slaves in Egypt at the time of this event 
is indisputable ; the monuments bear witness to it. And 
the fact that those two millions were presently found 
settled in the land of Palestine is also attested by indis- 
putable evidence. If this multitude did not go out of 
Egypt in the manner indicated, the question arises, 
How did they get out of it? We believe that the 
Scriptures afford a satisfactory answer; it obviously 
devolves upon those who deny the scriptural record 
to account for the transfer in some other way. 

The denial is based, secondly, upon the improbability 
of an event so stupendous as the sudden migration 
of two millions of people. But why should this be re- 
garded as improbable when so ready credence is given 
to such corresponding movements as the Aryan migra- 
tions? It has long been the custom of ethnolo- 
gists to account for existing national adjustments by 
referring them to a series of precisely similar migra- 
tions from the central plain of Asia. A recent case in 
point, occurred on January 5, 1771, when Oubacha, a 
rustic leader of the Kalmucks, led four hundred and 
twenty thousand persons from the banks of the Volga 
to their subsequent home in China. 

The third ground of the denial of the Exodus is the 
assumption that Pharaoh, the most potent sovereign of 
his time, would not have permitted these people to go. 
And, from the standpoint of the destructive critics, that 
is quite true. The trouble, however, is that they leave 
God out of the reckoning. They deny miracles and 
special providences. The man who undertakes a thou- 


Wayfarers of the Bible 81 


sand years hence to write the history of Russia from a 
purely materialistic standpoint, will no doubt affirm, in 
like manner, that it was immeasurably improbable that 
the Czar should have allowed his people to establish a 
constitutional government; but, just now, it appears as 
if God might not ask the Czar whether or no he would 
permit it. The fact is that after the Children of Israel 
had escaped out of the house of their bondage, they 
were constantly reminded that it was by the immediate 
interposition of the divine hand. The song of their 
emancipation was, “Who is like unto our God, glorious 
in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? He 
hath led forth the people whom he hath redeemed!” In 
every great historic movement that has occurred along 
the path of the centuries there has been an evident - 
chain of special providences; and chroniclers like 
Hume and Gibbon have wholly missed the philosophy 
of history, because they have failed to perceive this. 
The fault of their method is exposed in the words, “Ye 
do err, not knowing the power of God.” 

So, then, assuming the Exodus to be an established 
fact, we proceed to consider its significance. As one of 
the great early migrations it was destined to have a 
far-reaching influence: 

(1) On the future history of the Children of Israel. 
We shall find, in a subsequent consideration of their 
journey through the wilderness, that it furnished the 
deep foundations of their national life. 

(2) It was a serious blow to Egypt. At the time of 
the Exodus she stood in the very forefront of the na- 
tions ; this event marked the beginning of the end. Go 
stand in the shadow of the obelisk in Central Park in 


82 Wayfarers of the Bible 


New York and look on the hieroglyphics that com- 
memorate the splendor of her golden age. Where is 
the magnificence of the Pharaohs now? 

“. .. They lie in glory, 
Cased in cedar and shut in sacred gloom, 
Swathed in linen and precious unguents old, 
Painted with cinnabar and rich with gold; 
Silent they rest in solemn salvatory, 
Sealed from the moth and the owl and the flittermouse, 
Each with his name on his brow.” 


Nay; there are not even legible names on their brows. 
The Pharaohs are passed into oblivion. The glory of 
Egypt has departed. It is a land to-day of mule- 
drivers and blind beggars. 

And the religion that was brought into conflict with 
Jehovah, what of it? Who bows before Ammon-Ra in 
these days? Who cares for the mysteries of Isis? Is 
there any so poor as to do reverence to the sacred bull? 
If you would find the gods of Egypt, you must read 
their story on byssus bands unwrapped from the mum- 
mied dead. The battle-royal of the centuries is over. 
Jehovah is God! 

(3) It thus becomes apparent that the influence of 
the Exodus falls over the whole world. The marching 
out of the fugitives meant that a new factor was to be 
introduced into the problem of civilization. They car- 
ried with them on their journey the Messianic hope, as 
a sacred trust, to be transmitted to future ages. If we 
follow them along the centuries we shall find them 
cherishing that Hope as the very secret of their na- 
tional life, until they come to Via Dolorosa; and there 
—O memorable path of vanished dreams and aspira- 


Wayfarers of the Bible 83 


tions !—they drive before them the Messiah for whom 
they had waited so long, a prisoner in bonds, to meet 
an ignominious death; and the air is vibrant with their 
cry, “His blood be on us and on our children!” 

We are the inheritors of the Hope which they cast 
away. The children of Japheth have moved into the 
tents of Shem. It is by reason of Christian civilization 
that the world grows brighter every day. 

In a remarkable picture called “The Repose in 
Egypt,” by Géréme, the Sphinx is represented as the 
genius of an effete civilization, dull-eyed and wonder- 
ing, in the desolation of the desert. It is night. In 
the arms of the great image the virgin mother is re- 
posing with a child on her bosom; and from his face 
there radiates a light which penetrates the darkness of 
the surrounding wastes. Thus history begins. Out of 
the bosom of old Egypt comes the Messianic promise, 
the Hope of Israel, which will gladden the world for- 
ever. To know this waking Child is life eternal; for 
this is to know Jehovah, who reigns upon the ruins of 
all Pantheons, since he alone is God. 

(4) The inheritance of America in the benefits of 
the Exodus is plain to all reverent eyes. Ours is a 
Christian land. 

It is a far cry from Rameses to San Salvador; yet 
the red cross banner which was planted by Columbus 
on the shores of the Western World when he 
christened it “Land of the Saviour” was resplen- 
dent with the same light that shone in the pillar of 
cloud. 

It is a long journey from the Red Sea to Plymouth 
Rock; but the Pilgrims who landed there were fleeing 


84 Wayfarers of the Bible 


from the same sort of oppression and seeking the same 
inestimable boon. 


“What sought they thus afar? Bright jewels of the mine, 

The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? They sought a faith’s 
pure shrine. 

Aye, call it holy ground, the ground whereon they trod: 

They left unstained what there they found, Freedom to wor- 
ship God.” 


It is a great distance from the palace of the Pha- 
raohs to Independence Hall in Philadelphia; yet our 
forefathers who deliberated there, as to the great 
fundamental facts of constitutional freedom, were 
traversing the same ground that was contested in that 
ancient battle of the gods. 

Our birthright as a nation is the Messianic hope. 
The light in the torch of Bartholdi’s “Liberty” is the 
light of the Shekinah. The “preachment” * in a re- 
cent message of President Roosevelt, when reduced to 
its lowest and its highest terms, is simply the call of 
Moses, “Let my people go!” which finds its full frui- 
tion in the Christian heritage, “the glorious liberty of 
the children of God.” 

(5) The relation of the Exodus to the Christian 
Church is a vital one. The Jewish Church forfeited its 
inheritance in the Messianic hope when it crucified 
Christ. The Christian Church then became the de- 
positary of the sacred trust. The Jews to-day num- 
ber eleven millions, who are wanderers upon the face 
of the earth. The Church of Christ, which had its 


* “Our President is greatly given to preachments.”—One of 
our Morning Newspapers. 


Wayfarers of the Bible 85 


beginning in the little company that came down the 
outer stairway from the upper room in Jerusalem on 
the night before the crucifixion, has been multiplied 
from century to century until there are four hundred 
millions of people who rejoice to call themselves after 
the name of Christ! It behooves them to bear in con- 
stant remembrance a fact which was emphasized by 
Christ himself, that “salvation is of the Jews.” Jesus 
was a Jew. “He came unto his own and his own re- 
ceived him not.” In the providence of God the Casket 
of Jewels which was entrusted to the care of the 
chosen people has descended to us. 

And with this high privilege there is a correspond- 
ing responsibility. We are appointed to be the pur- 
veyors of the world’s spiritual life. It devolves upon 
us to make known the Messianic Hope to the utter- 
most parts of the earth and to the last man in it. And 
we are bound to bear in remembrance, day and night 
unceasingly, the pathetic fact that eleven millions of 
those who should have been foremost in receiving the 
Christ are obdurate still in rejecting him. Let us pray 
for the peace of Jerusalem! “They shall prosper that 
love thee.” May the time be hastened when the eyes 
of Israel shall be opened to see that Jesus is the Christ 
of God. 

(6) There is a last word to those who, living in the 
high noon of Gospel civilization, refuse to believe in 
him who is the very heart and life of it. “O foolish 
Galatians, who hath bewitched you; that ye should not 
obey the truth, before whose eyes Christ has been evi- 
dently set forth crucified among you ?” To withstand 
the appeal of the Gospel in these days and under ex- 


86 Wayfarers of the Bible 


isting conditions is to sin against light and reason; it 
is to sin against books and progress and the logic of 
events ; it is to sin against the irrefutable testimony of 
innumerable witnesses ; it is to sin against the hearing 
of one’s ears and the sight of one’s eyes. 


+a 


JOURNEY IX 


IN WHICH THE ISRAELITES WANDER UP AND DOWN IN 
THE WILDERNESS 


Tue fugitives, on leaving Egypt, apparently made 
a bad mistake; instead of turning northward in the 
direction of the land of Promise they took the southern 
road and headed toward the Red Sea and the Desert. 
“Aha!” said Pharaoh, “if they keep on we shall have 
them in a trap; they will be entangled in the land.” 
His men of war were ordered to follow and intercept 
them. On the evening of the first day the fugitive 
slaves reached Succoth and went into camp. The close 
of the second found them at Etham, “on the edge of 
the wilderness.” The third brought them to Pi- 
hahiroth; and this was the trap. Before them rolled 
the sea, on either side were mountains, and behind 
them they could hear the footfall of Pharaoh’s host. 
It was apparently a hopeless situation. Yet they could 
not have been mistaken in coming this way; for had 
they not followed the pillar of cloud? 

No; the mistake was on the part of Pharaoh, as he 
was presently to discover, when his horses and their 
riders were drowned in the sea. The fugitives were 
not entrapped, neither were they to be entangled in the 
land or swallowed up in the wilderness. Pharaoh 
was reckoning without God; who had a plan for the 

87 


88 Wayfarers of the Bible 


Children of Israel so definite that every step in its 
development was marked out before him. The road 
leading to the North would indeed have brought them 
to Canaan in a fortnight or thereabouts, while the 
southern road meant forty years of wandering. He 
knew this: it is written, “He led them around by the 
way of the wilderness.” Why? He wanted a nation, 
and this was his way of making it. 


THE MAKING OF A NATION 


The great caravan was only six weeks out when it 
came to Mount Sinai. There the process began. The 
man in command, who had for forty years pastured 
his flocks in the shadow of this mountain, now went up 
into its summit and remained forty days in communion 
with God. And when he returned to the people he 
brought with him the symbols of their national life. 

The first thing needed was an Apology, or State- 
ment of the case. 

Our forefathers began the Declaration of Independ- 
ence with a Preamble, on this wise: “When in the 
course of human events it becomes necessary for one 
people to dissolve the political bands which have con- 
nected them with another and to assume among the 
Powers of the earth the separate and equal station to 
which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God en- 
title them, a decent respect to the opinions of man- 
kind requires that they should declare the causes which 
impel them to the separation.” In the case of Israel 
there was a corresponding statement in the prefatory 
words at Sinai, “I am the Lord thy God which have 
brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house 


Wayfarers of the Bible 89 


of bondage.” The responsibility for the Exodus is 
thus briefly thrown back upon God. The people were 
now to be nationalized in obedience to his behest and to 
be kept forever “separated” by their belief in him. 

The next logical step in the building of a nation is 
the framing of a Constitution. 

The Constitution of Israel was the Decalogue. The 
Ten Commandments are a summary of the funda- 
mental principles which are involved in national life. 
This summary is brief but comprehensive. The plat- 
form is broad enough to furnish an outlook for uni- 
versal conquest and for the establishment of an ulti- 
mate commonwealth of God. It is the one ethical sym- 
bol which has never been amended or improved. At 
the beginning of Christ’s ministry he went up into a 
mountain and delivered his inaugural, as King of the 
new Kingdom of truth and righteousness; and his 
Sermon on the Mount was an exposition and amplifica- 
tion of the Ten Commandments; as he said, “I am not 
come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it.” 

The next thing necessary was a Code of Statutes, 
or laws of more specific application to the responsi- 
bilities of civil life. 

In these statutes, as given in the Book of Leviticus, 
we find a comprehensive statement of the Rights of 
Man. These rights are defined for all the relations of 
life; domestic, social, and political. They are briefly 
the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness.” Not a few of these statutes, particularly such 
as relate to marriage and divorce, and to the purchase 
and possession of property, are perpetuated in the ju- 
risprudence of the civilized world to-day. 


go Wayfarers of the Bible 


The next thing needed was a System of Ordinances 
for the regulation of religious life. 

This was made necessary by the fact that the gov- 
ernment was a theocracy, in which there was a close 
union of Church and State. The center of the cere- 
monial system was the Tabernacle, in which every- 
thing, being sprinkled with blood, pointed prophetic- 
ally to the Lamb of God. The ordinances were, for 
the most part, included under two heads; sacrifices, 
which had reference to the expiation of sin; and puri- 
fications, which symbolized the washing away of it. 
All these were fulfilled in Christ, who therefore at his 
coming “took away the handwriting of ordinances 
which was against us, nailing it to his cross.” But, 
while blotting it out, he established two splendid me- 
morials of it; namely, Baptism, which takes the place 
of all purifications, and the Eucharist, which gathers 
into itself all sacrifices and speaks eloquently of Christ 
who in our behalf was “offered once for all.” 

The next thing needed was Organization. 

This, in the Theocracy, must be twofold. On the 
one hand a civil organization was established, in which 
God himself was sovereign and Moses his vicegerent. 
There was a Congress or Parliament of two houses; 
the Upper House consisting of the twelve Princes or 
leaders of the tribes, and the Lower House of the sev- 
enty elders. On the other hand, there was an ecclesi- 
astical government in which God was again supreme 
and Moses his under-shepherd; with him were asso- 
ciated the priests, whose function was to offer sacri- 
fice, and the prophets, who instructed the people in 
the Word of God. 


Wayfarers of the Bible gI 


One thing more was needed, to wit, Discipline. 

The people remained at Sinai about a year; then the 
pillar of cloud lifted, and at the trumpet call, “Arise, 
O Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered!’ they 
moved on into “the great and terrible wilderness.” 
Here they wandered to and fro for a period of thirty- 
nine years. But they were not “entangled.” Those 
were years of discipline, which was necessary for the 
development of the nation. In all their vicissitudes 
these people were guided by the pillar of cloud. And 
when their wanderings ceased they marched into 
Canaan no longer a rabble of fugitives but a theocratic 
nation with a mobilized army ; the most perfect organi- 
zation that the world has ever seen to this day. 


THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN. 


In all this we observe an epitome of the Philosophy 
of life. God’s Providence is distributive. It has to do 
not with nations only but with individuals. He leads a 
man “around by the way of the wilderness.” He might 
have brought Israel by a shorter route; but the con- 
quest of Canaan was too great an enterprise for a rab- 
ble of slaves. There is no short road to character. 
The soul is trained for spiritual life. It is nursed into 
power and usefulness. Such wandering is not en- 
tanglement. “He leadeth me, O blessed thought!” 
To see his Providence is to unlock the meaning of 
the desert-life. Here is the solution of the Decrees: 
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trem- 
bling, for it is God that worketh in you.” 

The first thing in a man’s journey toward the best 
and highest, is to learn God. He who turns aside from 


92 Wayfarers of the Bible 


his burdensome tale of bricks to witness the battle of 
the gods, who hears the Voice “I am that I am!” and, 
crossing the edge of the wilderness, comes within 
sound of the trumpet waxing louder and louder and 
the Voice saying “I am the Lord thy God!” is begin- 
ning to live; as it is written, “This is life eternal, to 
know God.” 

The next thing is Law. The consciousness of law 
is expressed in the word due-ty; that is, the thing 
which is due to God. The answer to the question 
“Men and brethren, what shall we do?” is this, “What 
doth the Lord require of thee but to keep the com- 
mandments of the Lord, which I have commanded 
thee this day” (Deut. 10:13). But that way lies 
condemnation; for “there is no difference, we have all 
sinned and come short of the glory of God.” 

The next thing, then, is the Gospel. For “by the 
Law is the knowledge of sin”; and the Law thus be- 
comes “a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ,” whose 
blood cleanseth from sin. The young ruler who came 
prostrating himself before Jesus, and asking, “What 
shall I do to inherit eternal life?” was so convicted by 
his answer, “Keep the Commandments,” that he cried 
out, “What lack I yet?” The one thing lacking in the 
creed of a moralist is the hope of pardon; and this 
can be found nowhere else except in Christ crucified, 
since “without the shedding of blood there is no remis- 
sion of sin.” 

When a man has discovered these three, God, Law, 
and the Gospel, and has vitally appropriated them by 
faith, he needs one thing more, namely, Discipline. 
And this is gotten in the school of Experience. He is 


Wayfarers of the Bible 93 


divinely led by “the way of the wilderness.” It is a 
way that he knoweth not; but God knows it. To the | 
onlooker he seems entangled in the land; but all things 
are working together for his good. The pillar of the 
cloud is ever before him, and the promise is, “Lo, I 
am with you alway, even unto the end.” 

His disappointments are made to contribute to his 
spiritual growth. The Children of Israel were only 
three days out of Egypt when, with parched throats, 
they came to Marah, the bitter spring. But the tree 
that sweetened the waters grew near by. 

The next encampment was at Elim. O, the rare 
surprises of Christian joy! The desert has its oases 
where we rest in the shadow of the palm trees and 
drink of the waters of the King’s well. How often we 
go burdened to the closet and the sanctuary and “leave 
our burden at his feet and bear a song away.” 

Our privations, too, are salutary for us. There are 
some things which a Christian cannot have. In going 
out of Egypt he leaves the pleasures of sin behind him. 
And the temptation to murmur is almost irresistible. 
“OQ for the flesh-pots and the leeks and the onions!” 
But if we cannot have these, we can have manna “plen- 
teous as hoarfrost,” rich and free. Privation has its 
compensations, not the least of which is learning how 
to do without, and how to sing, 

“Father, whate’er of earthly bliss 
Thy sovereign will denies, 
Accepted at Thy throne of grace, 
Let this petition rise: 

Give me a calm, a thankful heart, 
From every murmur free; 


The blessings of Thy grace impart, 
‘And let me live to Thee.” 


94 Wayfarers of the Bible 


Conflict, also, is a part of this discipline. We cannot 
cross the desert without having to face the embattled 
front of temptation’s forces, as Og the king of Bashan 
and Sihon, king of the Amorites. But men grow strong 
in battle, winning strength of their vanquished foes. 
“Wherefore, count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall 
into divers temptations.” The sweetest joy of Chris- 
tian living is the consciousness of having won out in 
a hard tussle with a besetting sin. “We are more than 
conquerors,’ says Paul, “through him that loved us.” 
This is the New Name in the white stone given to 
him that overcometh: the honor, as yet anonymous, 
of being “more than a conqueror.” We cannot now 
understand what that is; we can only dream of it. 

And when we are defeated, even this experience is 
subsidized to our spiritual growth. The worst defeat 
that the Children of Israel ever suffered was when 
they came to Kadesh-Barnea, within a bowshot of 
their inheritance, where they looked over into the 
Land of Promise, trembled at the giants, and retreated 
into the wilderness without a blow. It is written, 
“They could not enter in because of their unbelief.” 
They must wander yet thirty-eight years before they 
would grasp the truth that “all things are possible to 
him that believeth.” So we journey up and down 
through the land, learning the lesson which a Chris- 
tian must ever learn, that there are no Anakim who 
can stand before God. 

Our sorrows, too, are a part of our training. The 
pathway of Israel was lined with graves. “So part 
we sadly in the wilderness, to meet again.” It is a 
true saying, “We do not sorrow as those that are with- 


Wayfarers of the Bible 95 


out hope.” Our farewells are all in the divine plan. 
“No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, 
but grievous; nevertheless afterward it worketh the 
peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are ex- 
ercised thereby.” The vision of heaven is full of the 
kindly faces and beckoning hands of those who have 
gone before and await us. 

But our sins—alas, our sins!—surely they are not 
included in the divine plan? Are they among the “all 
things” that work together for our good? They are. 
God so overrules them that when we reach heaven 
they shall follow us to the gate like captives dragged 
at our chariot wheels—but no further. The sins which 
are forgiven for Jesus’ sake shall furnish the dark 
background against which the divine grace will shine 
like stars. In heaven we shall look back on the pit 
out of which we were delivered and praise God for 
his immeasurable mercy. The song of the angels who 
surround the throne is full of the melody of adoration; 
but there is a note of triumph which they cannot 
strike. The saints triumphant, who stand nearer than 
they, sing the praises of the Lamb that was slain: 
“Worthy art thou to receive honor and power and 
glory and dominion, for thou hast washed us with thy 
blood and made us to be kings and priests unto God!’ 

So ends the Wandering. “The end crowns the 
work.” Remember all that way that the Lord hath led 
you! O, wonderful plan of God! The weaver at the 
loom casts no thread amiss. All things are working 
together for our good. All things! All! “God makes no 
mistakes,” said a dying saint. He was remembering 
the way that the Lord had led him. Ours are all the 


96 Wayfarers of the Bible 


mistakes; and God overrules them all. Wonderful, 
wonderful plan! This is the love that passeth knowl- 
edge. Here from the standpoint of Sinai on the one 
hand and of Olivet on the other, is the clew to the 
Philosophy of Life. “All things work together for 
good to them that love God.” 


JOURNEY X 


IN .WHICH THE ISRAELITES CROSS THE JORDAN AND 
ENTER THE PROMISED LAND 


THE custom of rearing monuments to perpetuate 
great facts or notable events is as old as history. Wit- 
ness the cairns of Scotland, the round towers of Ire- 
land, the Druid cromlechs of Stonehenge, and the obe- 
lisks of Egypt. The arch of Titus tells the sad story 
of the overthrow of Jerusalem. A granite pyramid 
surmounted by a bronze lion, on the field of Waterloo, 
commemorates “the earthquake of the nations.” The 
sleeping lion of Thorwaldsen, carved in the face of the 
massive primeval rock at Lucerne, memorializes the 
valor of the Swiss Guard, who were “faithful unto 
death.” 

The altar reared by the Children of Israel at Gilgal, 
had a similar purpose in view. Its importance is certi- 
fied by the fact that it was built by the express com- 
mand of God. He said to Joshua, “Take you hence 
out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the 
priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and carry them 
over with you and leave them in the lodging place 
where ye shall lodge this night.’’ It was these stones 
that were built into the altar; and the people were in- 
structed to have a suitable answer ready when, in com- 
ing time, their children should ask, “What mean these 
stones ?” 


97 


98 Wayfarers of the Bible 


If I had been a boy in Palestine and had seen this 
monument at Gilgal, I should certainly have asked my 
father, “What mean these stones?” And what would 
he have answered? Would he have knit his brow in 
perplexity, saying, “I know not” ? Nay; in all Jewry 
there was none so forgetful of the glorious history of 
his people nor so unmindful of the divine interposi- 
tion in their behalf, that an instant answer would not 
have sprung to his lips. 

He would have said, “My son, this is a memorial of 
the faithfulness of God. Long, long ago, in Ur of the 
Chaldees, he said to Abraham, ‘Get thee out of thy 
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s 
house, unto a land that I will shew thee.’ And Abra- 
ham arose, by faith, and set out upon his journey. 
The way was long, but the pilgrim’s heart was brave. 
Once and again the Lord renewed his covenant with 
him, saying, ‘I will give the Promised Land to thee and 
thy children after thee.’ His son, Jacob, settled in Beer- 
sheba with his twelve sons; the years passed, and 
there were wars and famines and many troubles; but 
the Lord did not forget. He still, on occasion, renewed 
his covenant, saying, I will surely give thee a land that 
floweth with milk and honey. At length our fathers 
went down into Egypt and were reduced to bondage; 
the heart went out of them as they groaned under the 
whip of scorpions. But the Lord still remembered his 
covenant; he bade them be of good courage, assuring 
them that in fullness of time he would lead them forth 
into a large and wealthy place and make of them a 
great nation. And when five hundred years had 
passed he brought them forth with a mighty hand and 


Wayfarers of the Bible 99 


a stretched-out arm. Then, wandering forty years in 
the wilderness, they murmured against God and pro- 
voked him by many sins; and still he did not forget; 
for his promise is Yea and Amen. He brought them 
finally to the banks of the Jordan, and there, by a mira- 
cle so stupendous that the world has never ceased to 
wonder at it, he wrought a complete deliverance and 
established them in the Promised Land. It was then 
and there that this altar was built, ‘that all the peo- 
ple of the earth might know the hand of the Lord 
that it is mighty, and that they might fear the Lord 
God forever.’ ” 

So that is what these stones mean. God never for- 
gets. A woman may forget the child of her bosom, 
but he never. “Hast thou not known? Hast thou not 
heard? Hath it not been told thee from the beginning, 
that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the 
ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary?” His 
patience is immeasurable. His loving kindness is infi- 
nite. Therefore, let us wait on the Lord and trust in 
him; for they that wait upon the Lord shall be as 
Mount Zion, which cannot be moved; they shall mount 
‘up as on eagles’ wings, they shall run and not be 
weary, they shall walk and not faint. 

But the altar at Gilgal commemorated not merely 
the general fact of the divine faithfulness; it had a 
more specific and immediate reference to a never-to- 
be-forgotten event, namely, the Crossing of the Jor- 
dan. Had this been effected by ordinary means there 
would have been no special call for a memorial; but 
here the arm of God was manifestly made bare in be- 
half of his people. This was a miracle. The river was 


100 Wayfarers of the Bible 


at the flood. By no possible means at their command 
could the multitude, gazing longingly over toward the 
Land of Promise, have crossed the torrent of waters 
that rolled before them. The record is on this wise: “It 
came to pass that when the feet of the priests that bare 
the Ark were dipped in the brim of the water, then the 
waters which came from above stood and rose up upon 
a heap; and those that came down toward the Sea 
of the Plain, failed and were cut off. And the priests 
stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, 
and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground.” 

A miracle is simply a special interposition of divine 
power in the calm progress of events. All things move 
on in the ordinary course of Providence until a crisis 
arrives where human power is vain. Then “Man’s 
extremity is God’s opportunity.” It is when we reach 
the end of our tether that God shows his arm. He 
helps those who help themselves. 

Three things were required of the Children of Is- 
rael before the Lord would part the waters of the Jor- 
dan to bring them into their inheritance. 

The first was Faith. These people had been here at 
Kadesh-Barnea thirty-nine years before; and they had 
looked over into the land of promise and hoped to en- 
ter it. They sent spies across who returned with clus- 
ters of grapes and pomegranates and other evidences 
of the richness of the country; but they reported that 
it was occupied by giants and so strongly fortified that 
it was useless to think of conquering it. “We be not 
able to go up against this people,” they said; “for they 
be stronger than we. In their sight we are but as 
grasshoppers!” Two of the spies, however, Caleb and 


Wayfarers of the Bible IOI 


Joshua, reported otherwise. They believed in the 
power of God. “Let us go up at once,” they said, 
“and possess the land; we be well able to overcome it!” 
But the people were seized with a panic of fear. They 
cried out against their lot and murmured again for the 
happy days of Egypt. Therefore God sent them back 
again into the wilderness to keep on wandering until 
they should learn the lesson of faith. ‘They could 
not enter in,” it is written, “because of their unbelief.” 
They had yet to be convinced that nothing is too hard 
for God, and that all things are possible to those who 
believe in him. 

In the subsequent school-life of the wilderness they 
did learn this lesson. The manna and the smitten 
rock, the victories over Og the king of Bashan and 
Sihon of the Amorites, the supernatural tokens of the 
divine Presence all along the way, were not in vain. 
And now the long journey was over; they had learned 
to believe. The doubt that had clipped their wings 
and cut the sinews of their strength and “tangled” 
them in the wilderness had given way to a firm confi- 
dence in God. 

The second thing that was required of these people 
before God would work the great deliverance was 
Courage. And courage depends on faith. Self- 
reliance is a splendid thing; but no man can truly be- 
lieve in himself who does not first believe in God. No 
man can make the most of himself who does not pro- 
ceed along the line of the divine prescript, ““Work out 
your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is 
God that worketh in you.” 

The difficulties in the way of conquest were as great 


102 Wayfarers of the Bible 


as they lad ever been. The people knew that if they 
crossed the Jordan there was no way back. The giants 
were still over yonder, and there were the frowning 
walls of Jericho. If they were ever to possess that 
land they must fight their way. 

And now they were ready. The wilderness had 
taught them courage. The rabble of slaves who es- 
caped from Egypt had, by the logic of events, been or- 
ganized into a nation with a formidable standing army. 
Not a few among them had won distinction on the 
thin red line of battle. The people were no longer smit- 
ten with fear in the presence of danger. They had 
looked on the pillar of cloud so long and had tested the 
promise of divine help so thoroughly, that they were 
now going up “harnessed,” with resolute hearts and 
flashing eyes, to fight the Anakim and conquer the 
land which the Lord had promised them. 

The third requirement was Obedience. “And the 
Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to mag- 
nify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know 
that as I was with Moses so I will be with thee; and 
thou shalt command the priests that bear the Ark of 
the Covenant, saying, When we are come to the brink 
of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still.” 

Was ever blinder obedience required than this? 
Jordan at the flood was rolling before them. “Go 
down to the brink and stand still!” Why stand still? 
“To see the salvation of the Lord!” Not until they 
have done their utmost will the miracle come. This 
is faith at its highest; to obey until our feet are dipped 
in the waters and then wait confidently on God. Nor 
was their trust misplaced. Standing there in the brink 


Wayfarers of the Bible 103 


of the impassable flood they saw God’s arm made bare. 
The waters stood up in crystal walls and the people 
passed through dryshod, into the Land of Promise at 
last! 

But the stones of Gilgal mean more than this; they 
utter forth an admonition and an exhortation. They 
recall the past only for the benefit of the future. The 
memories which they recall are fraught with practical 
lessons. 

Here is a lesson for our Republic. Verily, the Lord 
hath not dealt so with any people as he hath dealt with 
us. Not more clearly did he lead Israel by the pillar 
of cloud than he has led us since the day when our 
forefathers came hither in quest of freedom to worship 
God. We call ourselves a Christian nation. Our laws 
and jurisprudence are founded on the Biblical code of 
ethics. Our history bears, in every chapter, the red 
stain of the Gospel. Our President (God bless him!) 
is a Christian man. The Ark of the Covenant goes 
before us, as it went before the Children of Israel. In 
the side of that Ark was the Book of the Law; its 
golden cover was stained with the blood of sacrifice ; 
and above it rose the Cloud of guidance. Blessed is 
the nation that is in such a case! We fondly speak of 
the stars and stripes as “Old Glory’; but the glory of 
our nation is the banner of the red cross. As long as 
we are true to our Christian traditions we may rest as- 
sured that the divine blessing will be upon us. 

There is a lesson here for the Church, also. A great 
promise is ours: “All power is given unto me in 
heaven and on earth,” saith the Lord. “Go ye, there- 
fore, evangelize all nations; and lo, I am with you al- 


104 Wayfarers of the Bible 


way, even unto the end of the world.” Just there is 
the test of our faith and courage and obedience. We 
are sent forth to universal conquest; and God stands 
covenanted to his Church, as he did to Israel, to give 
her every portion of ground that the soles of her feet 
shall tread on; no more and no less. “Christ for the 
world we sing, the world to Christ we bring!” 

But, alas! our feet have scarcely touched the brim of 
the waters. We hesitate to enter in and possess the 
land. China is ours by reversion, and Africa and all 
the regions that lie in darkness and the shadow of 
death; but the Church must put her feet upon them. 
How meager is the vanguard which, after nineteen 
hundred years at school in the wilderness, we are send- 
ing forth to the conquest of the world! How can we 
pray, “Thy kingdom come,” until we have done our 
utmost to accomplish it? God waits to work his great 
miracle. When the faith and courage and obedience 
of the Church shall have led her to occupy all coigns 
of vantage and strategic points of heathendom, he will 
do the rest. Then will come the sunburst of the Mil- 
lennium, when every knee shall bow, under the opening 
heavens, out of which Christ will descend to reign 
among all nations. 

But the lesson comes nearer home. The appeal of 
the stones at Gilgal is a personal lesson. There are 
better things in store for us, if we will, than we have 
ever dreamed of. The Higher Life is before us. It is 
for us to say whether we will quit the wilderness of 
sin and sorrow, of squandered possibilities and vain 
regret, and enter upon a life of grander hope and 
holier aspiration. If so, we must believe in God. 


Wayfarers of the Bible 105 


“This is the victory that overcometh the world, even 
your faith.” 

The Higher Life is a land of giants and fortified 
cities. To enter it is to set forth upon a campaign of 
duty and conflict and grave responsibility; but Siloa’s 
Brook is full of the smooth stones of promise; and he 
who arms himself as David did, will find that naught 
can stand before him. Great promises are these: “I 
am the Lord thy God,” and “Lo, I am with you alway, 
even unto the end of the world,” and “I will deliver 
thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil 
touch thee,” and “I will never leave thee; I will never, 
no, never forsake thee.’ What more can we want? 
Here is the watchword of faith, “God with us!” 

And Courage, too. “I can do all things, through 
Christ who strengtheneth me.” A good life is never 
an easy life. The pilgrim in the Allegory came to the 
parting of the ways, where one road, called “Danger,” 
led into the darkness of a forest, and another, called 
“Destruction,” into the fastnesses of a mountain; but 
there was another path leading upward over a hill 
called “Difficulty,” and this the pilgrim chose, saying: 


“This hill, though high, I covet to ascend; 
The difficulty will not me offend, 
For I perceive the Way to Life lies here.” 


And then Obedience; absolute, unquestioning obe- 
dience. To go step by step, exactly as God indicates, 
this is the secret of success. There was one man, 
among those who wandered in the wilderness during 
the thirty-nine years of discipline, whose patience must 
have been sorely tried; it was Caleb, the optimist of 


106 Wayfarers of the Bible 


the spies, who had said, “We be able!” How he must 
have longed for the end of those school-days. And 
when at last the journey was over and the people were 
gathered about the altar at Gilgal, on being asked what 
part of the country he would choose for his inherit- 
ance, his answer was, “Hebron.” Why Hebron? For 
three reasons: first, because it was a fertile tract of 
country; second, because it was an historic place, the 
camping-ground of Abraham; third, because it was 
the home of the giants. There was Kirjath-Jearim, 
the capital city of the Anakim. This man Caleb, 
trained in faith and courage and obedience, longed to 
be in the very vanguard of conquest. O blessed is 
he who thus fears nothing, but simply and courage- 
ously trusts in God; who longs to take heaven with the 
wind in his face; who does not shrink from the steep 
path of difficulty so long as he knows that “the Way to 
Life lies there.” This is the clew to the problem of 
character and usefulness. This is the lesson of the 
monument at Gilgal. 


JOURNEY XI 


IN WHICH THE STRONGEST OF WEAK MEN TAKES THE 
ROAD TO TIMNATH 


Tue Children of Israel, on taking possession of the 
Land of Promise, were placed under the Government 
of God. This period is known as that of the The- 
ocracy. On occasion men were divinely raised up to 
deliver the people from their foes: these were called 
“Judges.” We may get a sidelight into this interesting 
period by glancing at the eventful life of one of these 
men. 

God wanted a man; and, by that unvarying law of 
demand and supply which is commonly called Provi- 
dence, the man must be forthcoming. 

A man was needed, once on a time, to contribute 
toward the solution of the problem of human rights; 
and straightway Stephen Langton appeared with 
Magna Charta in his hand. A man was needed again 
to vindicate the freedom of individual conscience; and 
out of the monastery of Wittenberg he came, unbind- 
ing his rosary, and preparing to nail the thunderbolts 
of the Reformation to the chapel door. So times and 
men come together by divine ordinance. The clock 
strikes, and somebody answers, “Here am I!” 

At this time the glory had departed from Israel. On 
every hand were altar-fires in honor of Baal. Up from 

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108 Wayfarers of the Bible 


the southern plains came the Philistines in their rat- 
tling war chariots, devastating the fields and plunder- 
ing the villages. The banners of God’s people were 
trailed in the dust. The ark of the covenant had been 
carried away into exile. Was there no arm to save? 
If man’s extremity is God’s opportunity, surely the 
hour had come. Where was the man? 

In the house of Manoah at Zorah, just then, a child 
was born, of whom it was said, “He shall begin to de- 
liver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” He 
was the child of prophecy. In the name given him, 
Samson, meaning “Sunshine,” there is an intimation 
of a joyous parental welcome, a divine benediction, and 
a glorious outlook. If we follow him through the 
years we shall learn the lesson of Power; its Secret, 
its Loss, and its Recovery. 


1. The Secret of Power. 


The mission of Samson had been set forth in the 
annunciation of his birth; to wit, he should “begin to 
deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.” This 
was “the reason of his life.” There is no life without 
a reason; though many, failing to discover this, live 
and die unreasonably. Our power is measured by our 
loyalty to the divine purpose concerning us, 

The lad was set apart from his birth as a Nazirite. 
The word means “separated.” The Nazirites were 
persons who regarded themselves as divinely called 
to special tasks, and who shaped their lives accord- 
ingly. They were pledged to the putting down of 


every personal feeling and ambition in the interest of. 


their vow. The badge of this austere brotherhood was 


F 
_~ 


Wayfarers of the Bible 109 


their unshorn hair, which hung over their shoulders 
in seven braided locks. 

The physical strength of Samson was a supernatural 
gift for a definite end. His sturdy limbs and broad 
shoulders and muscles like twisted cords were a spe- 
cial equipment for his appointed work. In his youth 
he met a lion in the way and rent its jaws asunder as 
if it had been a kid. And this was but an earnest of 
larger deeds of prowess further on; as when he lifted 
the gates of Gaza from their hinges and carried them 
away in grim derision to a neighboring hilltop, laugh- 
ing back, “See how your bolts and bars restrain me!” 
Or, as when he met the enemy at Lehi and, single- 
handed, smote them hip and thigh, rejoicing over the 
slaughter in a rude alliterative battle-song : 


“With the jawbone of an ass, 
Heaps upon heaps; 

One heap, two heaps; 

With the jawbone of an ass 
Have I felled a thousand men!” 


But his endowment was more than physical; as it 
is written, “The spirit of the Lord strove with him.” 
- What does that mean? Why does God’s spirit strive 
with any man, except to persuade him to address him- 
self to his allotted task? The physical equipment of 
Samson was practically useless save as it should be 
used in fulfillment of his vow. His unshorn locks 
were in evidence of his remembered duty. Let him 
forget; and he will be weak as other men. 

Why are we living? Is it merely to eat and drink 
and get a little yellow dust together? Or is our life 
related in some way to the great plan of God? 


110 Wayfarers of the Bible 


The success of any life is conditioned on its adjust- 
ment to that plan. It is to this end that God’s Spirit is 
ever striving with us. To turn aside from the path 
divinely marked out is to “grieve the Spirit.” To con- 
centrate our energies on the point in view is to meet 
the law of our being. Where will you find a more caus- 
tic satire than in the words of Douglas Jerrold: “I 
know a man who is master of twenty-four languages, 
but has nothing to say” ? Or, where will you find a 
sadder epitaph than on the tomb of Joseph II, at 
Vienna: “Here lies a King, who, with the best inten- 
tions, never succeeded in carrying out a single plan” ? 


2. The Loss of Power. 


The fall of a soul into moral debility is usually 
through a process of gradual decline. The sun is 
eclipsed not by the instant veiling of its brightness; 
an arc of twilight creeps over its verge, and, encroach- 
ing more and more, brings on at last a very blackness 
of darkness. So is the enfeeblement of a strong man. 

It began in Samson’s case with certain journeys 
down to Timnath. He had seen there a woman of the 
daughters of the Philistines, and was captured by her 
fair face. His temptations came in at Eye-gate. In 
vain did his parents remonstrate, “Is there never a 
woman among the daughters of thy brethren?’ It 
was enough for Samson that he desired her. “Get her 
for me,” he cried; “she pleaseth me!” 

The beginning of the descent from strength to weak- 
ness is in self-will. Our dallying with sin is ever 
traceable to this, “It pleaseth me.” 

The road to Timnath is away from consecration, 


Wayfarers of the Bible III 


away from power, away from God. Once and again 
the strong man made that journey, and always a little 
further from the serious business of his life. The be- 
guilements of the fair Philistine were at length woven 
about him like the bands of Gulliver in Lilliput. 

The end of self-will is surrender. It is perilous to 
trifle with diversions and distractions. Our safety is 
in hewing to the line. We are like the district messen- 
ger boy who is sent on an errand post haste. As he 
turns the corner the bell of a fire engine arrests his 
steps. A little further on a group of lads are tossing 
pennies, and he lingers agape with interest, hands 
in pockets, looking on. Meanwhile his message waits. 
But who are we that we should make merry at this 
lad’s expense? Are we not also sent on an ambassage, 
and does not the King’s business require haste? Yet 
here are we in Vanity Fair, charmed with the music 
and glint of tinkling feet, or mayhap mingling with the 
self-seeking multitude and losing ourselves in sordid 
cares. Meanwhile, what of the purpose of life, and 
what of our message? Behold, the world lieth in dark- 
ness, waiting for it! 

The story of Samson’s fall is full of warning. He 
laid his head in the lap of the temptress, and rose up 
shorn of his manly strength. Not all at once, how- 
ever. Observe how he played with the mystic sym- 
bol of his calling. “Tell me,” said Delilah, “wherein 
thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest 
be bound to afflict thee.” 

And Samson said, “If they bind me with seven green 
withes, then shall I be weak as another man.” 

He slept, and was bound with the green withes; and 


112 Wayfarers of the Bible 


she cried, “The Philistines be upon thee!” Then he 
awoke and brake the withes as tow that is scorched in 
the fire. 

And the temptress said, “Behold, thou hast mocked 
me. Tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest 
be bound.” 

“Tf I be bound with new ropes that never were used, 
then shall I be weak as another man.” 

He slept again, and was bound with new ropes. 
“The Philistines be upon thee!” she cried. And he 
brake the ropes like threads from his arms. 

And she said, more persuasively still, “Thou hast 
mocked and deceived me; tell me now wherewith thou 
mightest be bound.” 

He approached perilously near his great secret when 
he answered, “If thou weavest the seven locks of my 
head with the web.” The moth was fluttering close 
about the flame. 

Again he slept; and his locks were woven in the 
loom. Then she cried, ““The Philistines be upon thee!” 
and he awoke and, laughing, walked away with the 
beam and the web. 

Then she poutingly urged: “How canst thou say, I 
love thee? Thy heart is not with me. Thou hast 
mocked me thrice, and hast not told me wherein 
thy great strength lieth.’ Thus she pressed him 
daily with her words until his soul was grievously 
vexed. 

Then he told her all: “If I be shaven, my strength 
will go from me.” Once more he slept, and the lords 
of the Philistines were in waiting. The bird was in 
the snare. His locks were shorn and his strength 


Wayfarers of the Bible 113 


went from him. Again the cry, “The Philistines be 
upon thee!”’ 

He awoke and said, “I will go out as at other times 
and shake myself.” And he wist not that the Lord 
was departed from him! 

He wist not. Ah, there is the sorrow of it. The 
most insidious diseases are those which give no pain. 
Their victims, in the midst of business or pleasure, 
swoon and are gone. So does a sin indulged creep, 
like an ambushed assassin, nearer and nearer to the 
center of life. O, that God would enable some of us 
to look backward and perceive our unconscious loss of 
influence! Has the fine edge of our moral sense worn 
off? Is our conscience, once as sensitive as the palm 
of an infant’s hand, now seared as with a hot iron? 
These are ominous signs of spiritual declension. We 
started out at the beginning of our Christian life with 
a determination to be strong. We coquetted with sin 
and, behold, we are weak like other men. 


3. The Recovery of Power. 


Blessed be God, all is not lost! The man who has 
forgotten his vow, forsworn his duty, and denied his 
Lord, shall yet have an opportunity of grace. “Return 
unto me, saith the Lord, and I will have mercy upon 
thee.” 

In the prison house of Gaza sits the champion of 
Israel; a captive, grinding like a woman at the mill. 
His eyes are out. He sits in open view, that the people 
may make sport of him. The fair women of Philistia 
pass by and deride him; but he sees them not. Tempta- 
tion enters no more at Eye-gate. In his enforced soli- 


114 Wayfarers of the Bible 


tude he remembers. He recalls the prophecy of his 
birth: “He shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand 
of the Philistines.” He bemoans his wasted strength, 
his squandered privilege. He is alone in the surging 
crowd; alone with God. He repents, bitterly repents. 
His consecration vow is before his blind eyes in letters 
of fire. O that he might prove himself a Nazirite 
again before he dies! His enemies have not perceived 
that his locks are growing. They have grown with the 
renewal of his vow. His affliction is not in vain; he 
remembers the riddle he once gave to his enemies: 
“Out of the eater is come forth meat, and out of the 
strong is come forth sweetness.” Thus in the secret 
place of penitent sorrow he renews his fealty to God. 

The closing scene is pathetic beyond words. The 
festival of Dagon is at hand. The Philistines are 
gathering to offer a great sacrifice to their god. The 
blind giant of Israel is brought into the temple that 
the assembling multitude may behold him. He bears 
their mockery in silence; the Spirit of God is again 
striving with him. His heart is no longer with the 
past; in this fierce hour he renews his consecration. 
He will yet, with God’s help, “begin to deliver Israel 
out of the hand of the Philistines.” He hears the foot- 
fall and murmur of thousands gathering in the temple. 
The galleries are full. His hour of triumph has come. 
He stretches forth his hands, feeling for the great pil- 
lars. The muscles of his iron frame are tense and 
swollen. He lifts his scarred face with its eyeless 
sockets toward heaven. His lips move; he makes his 
last prayer, “O God, avenge me!” There is a trem- 
bling of the pillars, a momentary hush, then cries of 


Wayfarers of the Bible 115 


the fear-stricken and the dying, as with a crash the 
temple falls, burying in its ruins the blind captive and 
his persecutors. And from the silence of that ruin 
forevermore may be heard a voice, “Return from thy 
backslidings, O Israel, and I will restore thee! Re- 
turn and [ will return unto thee.” 

Now turn to the eleventh of Hebrews and see the 
name of Samson recorded in the inspired roll-call of 
those heroes who “by faith were made strong out of 
weakness.” By this we are given to understand that 
faith is the measure of power. And what is faith but 
the vital touch of a soul with God? 

It is faith that holds us fast to duty, brings us back 
from wandering and makes all things possible for us. 
We are strong only when we are weak; because then 
the power of God rests upon us. 

The beginning of power is when a man finds his 
mission; when, like Saul of Tarsus, he looks into the 
face of Jesus and asks, “Lord, what wilt thou have 
me to do?” 

The loss of power is when one turns aside from the 
path of duty to go down to Timnath. He who walks 
by faith will shun that road. There is a world of wis- 
dom in the cotter’s words: 


“An’ O be sure to fear the Lord alway, 
An’ mind your duty duly morn an’ night! 
Lest in temptation’s path ye gang astray, 
Implore His counsel an’ assisting might. 
They never seek in vain who seek the Lord aright.” 


A young Englishman, sixty years ago or there- 
abouts was moved to carry the gospel to Tierra del 


116 Wayfarers of the Bible 


Fuego. The divine call was clear. This was his ap- 
pointed task; he must accomplish it. He spent his 
limited fortune in fitting out an expedition; only to 
be repulsed by the natives and driven back a penniless, 
unsuccessful but still resolute man. He urged his plea 
upon the Churches and sailed again. This time he was 
permitted to land; he pitched his tent among the peo- 
ple, and prepared for work. One by one his compan- 
ions died, and he was driven by the superstitious na- 
tives to the shelter of his boat. In the shadow of a torn 
sail he lay dying. Not a soul had been given him for 
his hire. Was his life wasted, then? In his last mo- 
ments he wrote these words, to be found long after- 
wards: “My little boat is a very Bethel to my soul. 
Asleep or awake, I am happier than tongue can tell. 
I am starving, yet I feel neither hunger nor thirst. I 
feed on hidden manna and drink at the King’s well. I 
am not disappointed ; for I remember this : ‘One soweth 
and another reapeth.’” Was his life a failure? Nay; 
let the thousands of converts, who go each year, in 
that faraway country, to water with their tears the 
grave of Allen Gardiner, pass their verdict upon it. 
No arrow is wasted that speeds to its mark. No life 
is futile whose strength is spent in pursuance of a di- 
vine call. 


JOURNEY XII 


IN WHICH A YOUNG MAN, SEARCHING FOR HIS 
FATHER’S ASSES, FINDS A CROWN 


Ir was no new thing for the Children of Israel to 
demand a king. At the edge of the Promised Land 
the Lord forewarned Moses that such a demand would 
be made, and provision was made to meet it (Deut. 
17). None the less on that account was it a sin against 
God. 

The book of the Judges, covering a period of four 
hundred years, was the best expression ever given in 
history to the Theocracy, or Commonwealth of God. 
In this form of government God was supreme; as he 
said, “I will be your king.” The people were repre- 
sented in two Houses of Parliament; the Upper 
House, composed of the Princes of the tribes; and the 
Lower, of the seventy Elders. There was a well- 
organized and formidable standing army. There was 
a hierarchy of Priests, who offered sacrifice and served 
as intermediaries of the people in their communion 
with God. There was a college of Scribes, whose 
special function was to interpret the Word. In addi- 
tion to these, in cases of special emergency, provision 
was made for champions, known as “Judges,” to de- 
liver the people from their foes. It is scarcely possi- 
ble to think of a wiser or more effective form of gov- 

117 


118 Wayfarers of the Bible 


ernment. We may well believe that in the Golden Age 
the world will return to it. 

But the Israelites were not content. They had a 
mind of their own. They wanted a king, and their 
reasons were forthcoming: First, for the better ad- 
ministration of justice. Second, for military success; 
as they said, “Give us a king that he may fight our 
battles for us.” And third, that they “might be like 
all the nations.” In other words, the simplicity of the 
Theocracy palled upon them. They coveted a court 
and a retinue, with all the imposing pomp and circum- 
stance of royalty. These were the reasons they gave; 
but back of everything else lay the fact that they were 
tired of the authority of God. 

As to the result, they were forewarned by Sam- 
uel, who said, “If you have a king, he will conscript 
your sons for military service; he will impose upon 
you the labor of his fields and vineyards; he will ex- 
act taxes and tithes of your herds and flocks; and you 
shall cry out in that day because of your king, and the 
Lord will not hear you!’ But remonstrance was in 
vain; they insisted, “Nay; but we will have a king to 
rule over us!” 

It was a wise poet who wrote: 


“We, ignorant of ourselves, 

Beg often our own harms, which the wise Powers 
Deny us for our good. So find we profit 

By losing of our prayers.” 


But, alas! the “losing of our prayers” is not the worst 
of it. If we, in our fatuity, keep clamoring like chil- 
dren for “our own harms,” they may be granted and 


Wayfarers of the Bible 119 


the responsibility will rest on us. This is the Way 
of the Wilful: “Nay; but we will have a king over 
us!” 

So their desire was granted. God said to Samuel, 
“Hearken unto their voice. They have rejected me, 
that I should not reign over them. Give them a king. 
I brought them up out of Egypt; and they have for- 
saken me!’ 

On the hills of Benjamin a young man was wan- 
dering with his servant in search of his father’s asses, 
that had gone astray. He was “a choice young man 
and goodly: there was not in all Israel a goodlier per- 
son than he.” He passed through Mount Ephraim 
and the land of Shalisha, on through Shalim and over 
the borders into the land of Zuph. “Let us return,” 
he then said to his servant, “lest my father be anxious 
for us.” His servant answered, ‘There is in the city 
yonder a seer; let us go thither, peradventure he may 
show us the way.” As Saul entered the presence of 
Samuel he was greeted with the words, “Be not anx- 
ious for thy father’s asses; they are found. But, be- 
hold, the desire of all Israel is unto thee.” And the 
anointing oil was, then and there, poured upon his 
head. 

So runs the tale of Providence. A man goes out 
to seek his father’s asses and finds a crown. And 
even as he reaches for his crown, he is quite blind to 
his destiny ; not knowing that the Lord is using him as 
a rod wherewith to scourge his wilful people. At the 
Coronation, on the heights of Mizpeh, an address was 
delivered by Samuel in which he solemnly reiterated 
his admonition: ‘The Lord brought you up out of the 


120 Wayfarers of the Bible 


land of them that oppressed you; and ye have this day 
rejected him. Ye have said, Nay; but set a king over 
us.” But the people were infatuated; they looked 
upon the “choice and goodly young man,” and all with 
one accord shouted, “God save the king!” 

Is there nothing like this in history? It is the story 
of the nations from the beginning until now. And 
the same is true of individual life. The Way of the 
Wilful is the highway of the children of men. 

Observe the Revolt against Truth. “Revolt” is the 
word. I can remember when men shuddered at the 
bold utterance of Theodore Parker: “I knaw the doc- 
trine to which you refer is said to be in the Scriptures ; 
but I am not prepared to receive that doctrine on the 
authority of any such person as God.” Yet that is 
practically the position taken by many, nowadays, who 
call themselves after the name of Christ. His word 
is no longer invested by them with ultimate authority. 

The question of ultimate authority is the touchstone 
in all our serious quest of truth. Where shall it be 
located? We face a trilemma. 

First, the final appeal may be to the Scriptures, as 
an infallible book. This, of course, cannot be allowed 
if the Scriptures are shown to be contra-rational; 
though the fact that they are supra-rational affords no 
serious difficulty to a thoughtful man. “If I could 
understand God,” said Daniel Webster, “I should not 
believe in him.” 

The second source and fountain of authority is an 
infallible Church. Just here we find ourselves facing 
the great conflict of the Reformation. The Bible was 
a closed book. The people had access to it only 


Wayfarers of the Bible 121 


through the mediation of their priests. Luther de- 
manded the right of personal approach and private 
interpretation on the part of every man. “Out of the 
light, Pope and hierarchy,” he cried; “you have led 
us into a region of dense ignorance. We claim the 
search-warrant of Christ, ‘Search the Scriptures; for 
in them ye think ye have eternal life, and these are 
they which testify of me! ” 

If we reject both the infallible Book and the infalli- 
ble Church, there is nothing left but the third horn 
of the trilemma, which is the personal consciousness, 
or infallible Ego. At this point reason is supreme, 
and every man becomes his own oracle. Is reason a 
trustworthy guide? “The spirit of a man is, indeed, 
the candle of the Lord.” But all candles are lighted 
at the sun. The function of reason is not to make it- 
self an oracle, but to interpret the oracular voices 
which are addressed to it. 

And what is the result? The worst comes to 
pass; for the very worst that can happen to any man 
is that he shall have his own way. So Paul writes of 
certain self-sufficient men of his time: “And when 
they knew God, they glorified him not as God, but 
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish 
heart was darkened. They changed the glory of the 
incorruptible God into an image made like to corrupti- 
ble man (which is simply the displacing of the infal- 
lible Word by the infallible Ego), and changed the 
truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the 
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for- 
ever’? (Rom. 1:21-25). Thus the philosophoi be- 
came sophoi: “They were alienated from the love of 


122 Wayfarers of the Bible 


God through the ignorance that was in them, because 
of the blindness of their heart’ (Eph. 4:18). And 
again, “Because they receive not the love of the truth, 
God sendeth them strong delusion that they shall be- 
lieve a lie” (2 Thess. 2:10). 

We turn to another manifestation of self-will in the 
Revolt against the Moral Law. It has been the cus- 
tom of God’s people from time immemorial to regard 
the Decalogue as the one perfect ethical symbol. In 
that symbol the final ground of obedience is placed 
in the divine sovereignty. Out of the flaming moun- 
tain came a Voice, saying, “I am the Lord thy God, 
which have brought thee forth out of the land of 
Egypt, out of the house of bondage; thou shalt and 
thou shalt not do thus and so.” In these days, how- 
ever, the ultimate and exclusive authority of the Ten 
Commandments is boldly called in question. And 
here again we face a trilemma. 

In searching for the final ground of moral respon- 
sibility we may discover it in the divine edict. This 
is the position of the great body of the Christian 
Church, which is still true to “Thus saith the Lord.” 

Or we may repudiate the divine ipse dixit and rest 
in the consensus or agreement of men. This makes 
the ultimate rule a mere convention. The Ten Com- 
mandments are conceded on all sides to be one of the 
great ethical symbols; but not always to be the only 
one. Any singular or supernatural inspiration is de- 
nied to them. If they be taken in conjunction with 
the Three Baskets of Buddhism, the Analects of Con- 
fucius, the precepts of Marcus Aurelius, and similar 
rules of conduct, we may possibly, they say, arrive at 


Wayfarers of the Bible 123 


some satisfactory moral code. But what is this except 
an absurd concession to custom and public opinion? It 
is merely saying, in other words, Let us do as others 
do. 

It remains only to take the third horn of the tri- 
lemma, that is Conscience. And here every man be- 
comes a law unto himself, doing that which is right 
in his own eyes (again the infallible Ego). It is true 
that conscience was originally intended to be a trust- 
worthy guide, but there is nothing surer or more evi- 
dent than that sin has fatally deflected it. The Ger- 
man philosopher, Schopenhauer, in his definition of 
Conscience, makes the following analysis: “Tt is one- 
fifth fear of man, one-fifth superstition, one-fifth prej- 
udice, one-fifth vanity, and one-fifth custom.” In any 
case, it is obvious that no man who is merely a con- 
scientious man can by that token be regarded as a good 
man. For no conscience is wholly right. The con- 
science of every living man is more or less corrupt 
by habit, so that the things which once he did with 
fear and trembling are now done without scruple or 
compunction; or, if he is moving Godward, his con- 
science is becoming more tender and his spiritual dis- 
criminations clearer. At times conscience is “seared 
as with a hot iron.” Is it ever infallible? Hear the 
rattling of chains as Saul of Tarsus goes down to 
Damascus on his bloody errand, thinking verily that 
he is doing God’s service. Hear the clang of the bells 
of Saint Bartholomew’s day ushering in the bloodiest 
massacre in history; and remember that conscience 
sounded that tocsin! Hear the cries and groans issu- 
ing from the torture-chambers of the Inquisition, 


124 Wayfarers of the Bible 


which was the very adytum of the conscience of those 
days! Thus the darkest deeds of blood and violence 
in history stand forth to shame the arbitrary reign of 
conscience in personal conduct. 

What is to be done, then, if we are so habitually 
misled by our perverted moral sense? It must be ad- 
justed to the revealed will of God. The case would 
be hopeless were no standard given us. We regulate our 
chronometers by the sun. But what if there were no 
sun? All mariner’s compasses are adjusted to the 
North Star. But what if there were no North Star? 
The pound-weights and yard-sticks of our merchants 
are rectified by the standards in the Patent Office at 
Washington. But what if there were no standards 
there or anywhere else? 

The result is moral anarchy. Men sweep out of the 
Theocracy into the reign of Saul. Self-will is made 
sovereign. And this means a moral break-down. 
Read the frightful indictment in the first chapter of 
Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, if you would perceive 
the logical outcome: 

“Professing themselves to be wise, they became 
fools. Wherefore God gave them up to unclean- 
ness . . . who changed the truth of God into a 
he. For this cause he gave them up to vile affec- 
tions, so that they received in themselves that recom- 
pense of their error which was meet. And even as 
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, he 
gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those 
things which are not convenient; being filled with all 
unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetous- 
ness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, de- 


Wayfarers of the Bible 125 


ceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, 
despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, 
disobedient to parents, without understanding, cove- 
nant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, 
unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that 
they which commit such things are worthy of death, 
not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that 
do them.” 

We turn now, to the Protest against Providence, 
that is, the divine control in the affairs of men. 

Of all the infidel sayings of Ingersoll none was re- 
garded as more blasphemous than this: “If I had set 
myself up as a Creator, I should have made a better 
world than this; and I should certainly make a better 
job of ruling it.” Yet that statement is merely para- 
phrased in much of the naturalistic philosophy of our 
time. 

A trilemma is again before us. We may choose to 
be under the constant care and control of God. 

Here is the thought of the divine immanence, so con- 
spicuous in the teaching of Christ. He would have his 
followers live under the Theocracy. He took them out 
to the hillsides and said, “Consider the lilies of the field ; 
how they grow. Your Father careth for them. How 
much more shall he care for you?” He taught them 
to express this sense of the divine nearness in their 
habit of prayer, saying, “Our Father.” The thought 
of that filial relation was to be the controlling factor 
in their lives. All things must be regarded as under 
his providential care and control. His grace, as mani- 
fest in the Atonement, is simply the greatest of his 
special Providences; that is, his interposition to save 


126 Wayfarers of the Bible 


us. And prayer is the medium by which the soul of 
the believer is kept in vital touch with his Father. 
This is the ideal government, wherein we are in per- 
fect accord with the purposes of God. 

If that thought be repudiated, we may, as an al- 
ternative, take up with the control of Natural Law. 

This makes us creatures of circumstance. We are 
the product of certain laws, operative in the process of 
evolution and uninterrupted by any interposition from 
God or elsewhere. In other words, we are what 
heredity and environment make us. This is the ma- 
terialistic view of things which led David Strauss in 
his last hours to say: “I am caught up in the grip of 
the immense machine of the Universe, not knowing 
at what moment I may be destroyed by its revolving 
wheels and pounding hammers. O, the insufferable 
abandonment of it!” 

But, if not that, what remains? The only alterna- 
tive is Self-will (again the infallible Ego). 

A man is the architect of his own fortune. 


“T care for nobody, no not I, 
And nobody cares for me.” 


‘At this point prayer ceases and life become a selfish 
conflict with the unknown powers that be. If prayer 
is ever offered, it is like that of the Christian Scien- 
tist, addressed to a God whose sole business is physical 
therapeutics, and with the only purpose of getting all 
that one possibly can out of him. The soul is under 
the tyranny of self-will, The emphasis on the filial 
relation is completely gone. Faith is no more. 

And what is the result? The history of Israel from 


Wayfarers of the Bible 127 


the beginning of the kingdom is the story of a swift 
hastening toward doom. It ends like that of Saul 
himself, who, crowned to discipline the nations, him- 
self followed in the Way of the Wilful and stood be- 
fore the cave at Endor, crying, “I am sore distressed ; 
for God is departed from me!” 

The lesson is Faith. Let us put it in the form of 
the current evangelistic phrase, “Get right with God.” 
All depends on our being in normal relations with 
him. It behooves us to remember that he is the Infi- 
nite, while our breath is in our nostrils. To dispute 
his authority, in any matter whatsoever, is to run upon 
the bosses of his shield. Back of all religion is the 
tremendous fact that God is a sovereign God. To be 
“right” with him, we must allow him to save us in his 
appointed way; that is, by faith in the blood that 
cleanseth. To be “right” with him we must approach 
him at the mercy-seat in the filial spirit; mindful of 
his superior wisdom, knowing and always glad to 
know that when we have uttered our desires before 
him, he will (provided we are willing) do that which 
is wisest and best for us. 

The spirit of true prayer is never that of the Israel- 
ites in demanding a king. Rather, “Lord, teach us 
to pray!” The only Man who ever knew how, was 
the Only-begotten Son. Let us hear him as he ago- 
nizes under the olive-trees of Gethsemane. With the 
purple cup of death at his lips, his trembling flesh cries 
out, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
from me!” And again under the deepening shadow 
of his impending anguish he cries, ‘““O my Father, if 
it be possible, let this cup pass from me!’ And then, 


128 Wayfarers of the Bible 


in the perfect acquiescence of filial love, he drinks the 
cup to its bitterest dregs, saying, “O my Father, if 
it be not possible, thy will be done!” This is prayer. 
This is being “right with God.” This is the just 
recognition of that authority which rests in infinite 
Wisdom and Goodness. This is faith, implicit faith: 


“T worship thee, sweet will of God, 
And all thy ways adore; 
And every day I live, I seem 
To love thee more and more. 


“T have no cares, O blessed Will, 
For all my cares are thine; 
I live in triumph, Lord; for thou 
Hast made thy triumphs mine. 


“Tll that God blesses is our good, 
And unblest good is ill; 
And all is right that seems most wrong, 
If it be his sweet will.” 


JOURNEY XIII 


IN WHICH ARE TRACED THE WANDERINGS OF THE ARK 
OF THE COVENANT 


Tue Ark of the Covenant was a mere wooden chest, 
five feet long and half as wide, but what a tremendous 
interest centered in it! It was constructed after a 
divine plan. The artisan Bezaleel was instructed to 
copy, in every minutest detail and particular, the “pat- 
tern shown in the Mount.” When finished, it was 
placed in a remote chamber of the Tabernacle, called 
“the Holy of Holies,” where no man was permitted to 
lay hands or eyes upon it, save once a year on “the 
Great Day of Atonement.” On that day the High 
Priest drew aside the fine-twined curtain and entered 
in; but “not without blood’—blood from the brazen 
altar of sacrifice, which was sprinkled on the golden 
cover of the Ark. 

Why should this simple chest be secluded with such 
jealous care? Why should it be compassed about 
with so many guards and warnings and minute pre- 
scriptions? And why should such tragedies attend 
it? “The Ark,” says Dr. Parker, “was the transient 
symbol of an eternal truth”; and he falls in with the 
common opinion that this “eternal truth’ was the 
presence of God. But the meaning of the Ark goes 
deeper than this. It was the vital heart and center of 
the whole elaborate cult of rites and ceremonies under 

129 


130 Wayfarers of the Bible 


the Old Economy. The sacred times, places, persons, 
and observances all converged here. It did, indeed, 
symbolize the divine presence; but that Presence was 
Christ. For in the Old Economy as in the New, there 
was no theophany or personal manifestation of God 
except as he was manifest in Christ as “the Angel of 
the Covenant,” who was called Immanuel, “God with 
us.” The Incarnation is the stooping of God to bring 
himself within the apprehension of men. But for this 
the finite could never grasp the Infinite at all. No 
man can see God and live. It is doubtful if we shall 
ever behold him except as we look on the face of the 
God-man. 

The meaning of the Ark, with a full explanation of 
the interest gathering about it, is given in its name. 
It was “the Ark of the Covenant.” The one differ- 
entiating fact by which the Children of Israel were 
called out of the world to be “a peculiar people,” was 
the fact that they were in covenant with God. The 
sum and substance of that Covenant was the Messianic 
trust reposed in the hands of Israel; as Paul says, 
“What advantage then hath the Jew? Much every 
way; chiefly, because that unto them were committed 
the oracles of God.” And the significance of these 
Oracles was the promise that in the fullness of time 
the Messiah would come to deliver the world from 
sin. This was “the Hope of Israel.’ The chosen 
people were required to keep that hope and pass it on 
to the coming ages. 

The Messianic hope was enshrined in the ceremonial 
system of the Jews. Not only their prophecies, but 
all their rites and ceremonies pointed forward as 


Wayfarers of the Bible 131 


object-lessons to the coming of Christ. The terms of 
the Covenant were that if the Children of Israel would 
be true, as the depositary of that hope, there should 
be no end to their national life. If not, the candle- 
stick should be removed out of its place; that is, they 
should cease to be a nation and no longer enjoy the 
special favor of God. 

At this remove from the Old Economy it is difficult 
for us to realize the immense emphasis which was 
placed on the minute particulars of this system of rites 
and ceremonies. It passed away at the advent of 
Christ, as shadows vanish before the rising sun. “He 
took away the handwriting of ordinances which was 
against us and nailed it to his cross.” If we then would 
understand the significance of this Ark of the Cove- 
nant, as the center of that system, we must view it 
from the standpoint of those who were still in the 
dim region of type and symbol, to whom truth must 
in the necessity of the case be revealed in object- 
lessons, after the kindergarten method; and we must 
continually bear in mind the fact that everything is 
pointing forward and crying, “Behold, he cometh!” 

The Ark was made of acacia wood, overlaid within 
and without with gold; illustrating, if not typifying, 
the dual nature of Christ, in whom Deity and human- 
ity are mystically united. 

It originally contained three things: Aaron’s budded 
Rod, the pot of Manna, and the tables of the Law. In 
the budded Rod is set forth the fact that life and im- 
mortality are brought to light in the Gospel of Christ; 
as he said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that 
believeth in me shall never die.” The pot of Manna 


132 Wayfarers of the Bible 


symbolizes Christ as our spiritual sustenance; as he 
said, “Your Fathers did eat manna in the wilderness 
and are dead; I am that bread which came down from 
heaven, of which if a man eat he shall never die.” 
The tables of the Law signified that Christ hath ful- 
filled all righteousness, and that he is the end of the 
Law for righteousness to all who believe in him. 

The golden cover of the Ark, called “the mercy- 
seat,” was sprinkled with blood, signifying that our 
only approach to God is through the atoning grace 
of Christ, whose blood cleanseth from all sin. 

The cherubim, who bent over the Ark with lowered 
eyes, in an attitude of wonder, call to mind the mys- 
tery of the Incarnation; as it is written, “Great is the 
mystery of godliness, God is manifest in flesh—the 
angels desire to look into it!” 

The cloud that rose from between the wings of the 
cherubim was the mysterious Shekinah, the “pillar of 
cloud by day and of fire by night,” the visible token of 
the divine presence and guidance; as Christ said, 
“To, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
world.” 

The Ark, thus significant of the one fact that made 
Israel a peculiar people, was vitally and tragically as- 
sociated with their history for a thousand years. 

The story begins at Mount Sinai. Up to that time 
all events connected with the life of that people had 
been preparatory. At Sinai the nation was born; re- 
ceiving its Constitution and By-laws, in the moral and 
ceremonial law. Then and there the Covenant was 
formally confirmed and emphasized. The Hope of 
Israel was crystallized in precept and ordinance. The 


Wayfarers of the Bible 133 


sacred rites and symbols were codified; and the Ark 
of the Covenant, which was the heart and nucleus of 
them all, was made “after the pattern shown in the 
Mount.” 

In the forty years in the wilderness the Ark occu- 
pied the central place. At the lifting of the cloud, the 
cry was heard, “Rise up, O Lord, and let thine ene- 
mies be scattered!’ The journey was resumed and 
the Ark of the Covenant led the way. When the 
cloud paused, the cry was raised, “Return, O Lord, 
unto the thousands of Israel!” the camp was pitched, 
and the Ark rested again in the Holiest of All. 

At the close of the forty years, when the people 
marched through Jordan, the Ark of the Covenant was 
placed in the bed of the river as the palladium of their 
safety ; and the spot was marked by an altar of twelve 
stones; a memorial of the faithfulness of a covenant- 
keeping God. 

In the settlement of the Promised Land the Ark was 
set up in the Tabernacle at Shiloh, where it remained 
for a period of about four hundred years; that is, dur- 
ing the time of the Judges, the Golden Age of Israel, 
the Commonwealth of God. 

At the battle of Aphek when the Philistines set 
themselves in formidable array against Israel, the Ark 
was resorted to as a fetich. It was brought into the 
midst of the battle, was captured, and carried away 
by the enemy. The aged Eli sat by the gate of Shiloh 
awaiting the issue. A messenger came, saying, “Is- 
rael is fled before the Philistines! There hath been 
a great slaughter. Thy two sons, Hophni and Phine- 
has, are dead; and the Ark of God is taken!” And it 


134 Wayfarers of the Bible 


came to pass that “when he made mention of the Ark, 
Eli fell backward and died.” 

The Philistines placed the Ark in their temple at 
Ashdod; and lo, Dagon fell upon his face before it! 
They carried it away to Gath, thence to Ekron, and 
thence to Beth-shemesh; and wherever it went the 
pestilence followed in its train and a cry of sorrow 
went up. At length it was placed in the house of 
Abinadab at Kirjath-jearim; where it remained for a 
period of seventy years, during which the Children of 
Israel seem to have entirely forgotten it. 

Then David came to the throne, the “man after 
God’s own heart.” Not being permitted to build the 
Temple, he bethought him of the Ark. He would 
bring it up from its exile and place it again in the 
Tabernacle; and this should be done with becoming 
pomp and circumstance. The body-guard, the choirs 
and orchestras, the procession of priests and Le- 
vites were provided. An ode was written for the oc- 
casion (Psalm 24). Then a grave mistake was 
made; the Ark was placed upon a new cart and the 
two sons of Abinadab took charge of it. The require- 
ment that it should be carried only on the shoulders 
of the Levites had probably passed out of mind. As 
the cart moved upward along the rough mountain 
road the Ark trembled, and Uzzah put forth his hand 
to steady it; and “God smote him that he died!” It 
would be superserviceable for me at this point to make 
an apology for the divine justice; let it suffice to say 
that the exemplary punishment of Uzzah placed a sin- 
gular emphasis upon the importance of observing the 
letter of the divine law. 


Wayfarers of the Bible 135 


For the time, David was affrighted and apparently 
resentful, saying, “How then shall I bring the Ark of 
the Covenant unto me?” He abandoned his purpose, 
temporarily, and the Ark found shelter in the house of 
Obed-edom, the Gittite. O blessed house of Obed- 
edom, marked by this symbol of grace! Blessed is 
every home where Christ stands in the doorway, lift- 
ing his hands and saying, “Peace be within this 
house’! Three months later, David returned for the 
Ark; it was raised on the shoulders of Levites and 
carried in solemn procession over the hills. There 
were singing and sacrifice and feasting when it was 
placed within the Tabernacle and rested again in the 
Holiest of All. 

At the completion of the Temple by Solomon, the 
‘Ark was removed thither. That was a great day. 
On his ivory throne sat “Solomon in all his glory.” 
The procession of priests and Levites drew near, and 
while they climbed the great stairway the choirs sang 
responsively, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and 
be lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory 
shall come in!” As the Ark was borne into the Holy 
of Holies, the great curtain fell behind it; and lo! the 
mysterious cloud came from within and hovered over 
the people, so that a great silence fell upon all. And 
there, in the Temple, the Ark remained for three hun- 
dred years. 

In the time of the wicked King Manasseh, it was 
removed to make way for the image of an unclean 
goddess. But when Josiah came to the throne, it was 
recovered from a storeroom of the Temple and re- 
stored to its place, where it remained until the Cap- 


136 Wayfarers of the Bible 


tivity. Then, after being so closely associated with 
the history of Israel for a thousand years, it mysteri- 
ously disappeared. Perhaps it was burned by the 
King of Babylon when he destroyed the Temple. Per- 
haps it was carried away to grace his triumph. In 
any case, it was never heard of again; and with its loss 
the glory departed from Israel. 

The people having proven false to their covenant, 
the Ark had no longer any significance. They had 
failed to cherish “the Hope of Israel”; and the admo- 
nition of the prophets came true, they were “scattered 
and peeled.” To-day the Jews are a people without 
a country, a nation without a government, a church 
without a visible token of the presence of God. 

But the Ark is not lost. The shadow is gone, but 
the substance remains. The Covenant is broken, but 
the truth abides forever. John the Evangelist, at the 
sound of the seventh trumpet announcing the consum- 
mation of all things, heard a cry, “The kingdoms of 
this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and 
of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever!” 
Then he saw the Temple of God opened in heaven, and, 
behold, “the Ark of the Covenant was there.” The 
sacrament of the abiding presence of Christ has not 
passed into oblivion. The word of the Lord is Yea 
and Amen. Thrones may totter, empires rise and 
pass away, but Christ abideth “yesterday, to-day and 
forever the same.” 

Here is a lesson for the people of our Republic to 
take to heart. Our national life is bound up with the 
destinies of our Ark. We call ourselves a Christian 
nation. The man who. discovered this continent 


Wayfarers of the Bible 137 


planted the red cross banner on its shores and chris- 
tened it “San Salvador.” We are a Christian nation as 
was Israel of old. Their covenant is our covenant. 
While they as a people were true to their Messianic 
trust, the Lord was the girdle of their strength. Their 
doom is our admonition. “O Jerusalem! How often 
would I have gathered thy children together as a hen 
gathereth her brood under her wings, and ye would 
not; and now, behold, your house is left unto you deso- 
late.” Our lifetime as a nation will be measured by 
our loyalty to Christ. 

And here is a lesson, also, for the Church. Its 
strength is in its covenant. “The Church’s one founda- 
tion is Jesus Christ our Lord.” All else is of com- 
paratively little moment so long as the Church remains 
loyal to him. But loyalty to Christ means devotion 
to him as Priest and Prophet and King. It means the 
receiving of the last atom of his teaching without de- 
mur or hesitation. It means a cordial recognition of 
his final authority in all matters pertaining to the con- 
duct of life. It means obedience to his great commis- 
sion, “Go ye into all the world and evangelize.” These 
are the terms of our covenant with him. To break 
that Covenant is to lose our right and title to the Ark 
as the symbol of his presence with us. 

And, finally, here is a lesson for us individually. 
The Christian life is merely a personal relation with 
Christ. The Christian is in covenant with Christ. To 
say that a man is a Christian because, in general terms, 
he seems to live the sort of life which Jesus lived 
among men, is not going far enough. No man is a 
Christian who has not willed to be Christ’s, passing 


138 Wayfarers of the Bible 


under his yoke in complete subjugation, and making 
an entire and unconditional surrender to him. “Chris- 
tianity is a life’; it is a life lived in pursuance of the 
behest of Christ; in sympathy with all his teachings 
as to doctrine and ethics and every other way. One 
of the Fathers wrote, “We who are Christians are 
branded in the ear and the foot; as the Master said, 
My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.” To 
be a Christian means far more than is generally al- 
lowed in these piping days of “broad-gauge”’ piety. 
Let us exalt the Covenant; for in that Covenant is the 
gist of the whole matter. It sets forth the mystical 
union of the believer with Christ. “He is made unto 
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification.” He 
is our Alpha, the beginning of every purpose and as- 
piration ; and he is our Omega, the end of every hope 
and ambition. Let us get back to the Covenant. Back 
to Christ! He is our first, our last, our midst, our all 
in all. 


JOURNEY XIV 


IN WHICH AN INQUISITIVE WOMAN GOES A LONG WAY 
TO TEST THE WISDOM OF A FOOLISH WISE MAN 


Tue name of the Queen of Sheba, as given in the 
traditions of the Moslems, was Balkis. She ruled in 
Arabia-Felix, or “Araby the Blest.” It was the land 
of gold and spices, of luxury and happiness. Herodo- 
tus says, “The country exhaled sweetness”; and 
Diodorus, “Its perfume extended far out to sea.” 

But the queen of this happy land was not happy. 
She was possessed of a consuming desire to find out 
“the reason of things”; and surely this was a noble 
ambition. It is this that differentiates us from the 
lower orders of life. The dawning in the eyes of a 
child is a look of inquiry; and the older we grow the 
more we wonder. Did you never stand on a clear 
night, gazing up at the stars and through the inter- 
stellar spaces, vexing your soul with the question, 
“What lies beyond?” There are multitudes of prob- 
lems which baffle us; and John Locke was right when 
he said, “If we do not ask we shall never find out.” 
Curiosity is the key of knowledge; knowledge is 
power; power is influence; and influence is life. All 
truth is of value; but that wisdom which gets hold of 
the great verities of the spiritual world is the principal 
thing. It is safe to say that, whatever else the Queen 


139 


140 Wayfarers of the Bible 


of Sheba wanted to know, the deepest longing of her 
soul had to do with the problems of the eternal life. 

But where should she go to find out? Was there 
anywhere a philosopher who could answer her “hard 
questions”? She had heard of Solomon, the king of 
an obscure province in a remote corner of the world, 
who was reputed to be “the wisest of men.” She de- 
termined to visit him. This was no small undertak- 
ing, for it involved a journey of about fifteen hundred 
miles. To go and return would require the larger 
part of a year. But she left the luxurious life of her 
palace and set out upon the dangers and hardships of 
desert and mountain in the quest of knowledge. 

In due time, attended by an imposing retinue, she 
arrived at her destination. The meeting of these dig- 
nitaries was a notable event; the most magnificent of 
kings and the queen of Araby the Blest; the wisest of 
men and the most inquisitive of women; the man who 
was reputed to know everything and the woman who 
wanted to know. She came with “a very great train” ; 
her camels laden with gold and spices and rare 
commodities of the Orient. She presented Solomon 
with ten thousand talents of silver; no doubt he re- 
sponded with a commensurate gift; and there were 
bowings and genuflections and elaborate exchanges of 
royal courtesy. 

But all this pomp and circumstance was aside from 
the matter in hand. The “hard questions” which she 
had pondered long were throbbing to her lips. 

In the province of Science she would find him a 
ready respondent. He was familiar with the habits of 
birds and beasts and creeping things; and he “spake 


Wayfarers of the Bible 141 


of trees, from the cedar which is in Lebanon even unto 
the hyssop which springeth out of the wall.” He was 
a scientist far in advance of his time. It would ap- 
pear, for example, from his reference to the break- 
ing of “the pitcher at the fountain and of the wheel 
at the cistern” that he anticipated by some thousands 
of years the discovery of the circulation of the blood. 
Did her curiosity lead her to test his literary ability? 
He was the Shakespeare of his age. He “spake three 
thousand proverbs and his songs were a thousand and 
five.” The Book of Canticles is the most perfect epi- 
thalamium ever written; and Ecclesiastes is unrivaled 
as a dramatic monologue. The poets of the centuries 
have sung their songs of the springtime, but never 
like this : 
“My beloved spake, and said unto me, 
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away! 
For, lo, the winter is past, 
The rain is over and gone: 
The flowers appear on the earth; 
The time of the singing of birds is come, 
And the voiceof the turtle-dove is heardin our land; 
The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs, 
And the vines are in blossom, 
They give forth their fragrance. 


Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away!” 


Or would she test his acquaintance with industrial 
economics? He was the merchant-prince of his time. 
At the docks of Joppa, the seaport of his kingdom, 
were ships from Tyre and distant Spain and Ophir, 
“bringing gold and silver and ivory, apes and pea- 
cocks”; and at the famous shipyard of Ezion-Geber 
were other vessels on the ways. The caravan routes 


142 Wayfarers of the Bible 


over the plains and mountains were lined with trains 
of camels and dromedaries, laden with the commodi- 
ties of remote lands. He had “horses brought out of 
Egypt and linen yarn.” By the traffic of his mer- 
chants he was enriched beyond all kings that were be- 
fore him. 

Or would she test his wisdom in the realm of practi- 
cal politics? He was the greatest of diplomats and 
statesmen. In one way or another he had formed 
alliances with Egypt and Syro-Phcenicia and other 
nations, in the interest of peace. He was called 
Shelomith, “the Prince of Peace.” It was a proverb 
that during his reign “every man sat under his own 
vine and fig-tree.” He practiced the precept, “In time 
of peace prepare for war.” Along the borders of his 
empire stretched a chain of formidable castles. He 
had a standing army of fourteen hundred chariots and 
twelve thousand cavalry, besides a multitude of foot- 
men. The wisdom of his foreign policy was equaled 
by his sagacious attention to internal affairs. He di- 
vided his kingdom into twelve districts, and kept his 
people constantly employed in the erection of public 
works. His palace was called “The Golden House.” 
The Queen of Sheba, no doubt, saw him there, seated 
on his throne of ivory, with twelve great lions on 
either side, and his guard in magnificent apparel about 
him. He justified the phrase, “Solomon in all his 
glory.” One of his royal homes, called “The House of 
the Forest of Lebanon,” was built of cedar overlaid 
with gold. One of his fortresses, called “The Tower 
of David,” had a thousand golden shields suspended on 
its battlements. Great public improvements were 


Wayfarers of the Bible 143 


multiplied on every hand. A system of aqueducts 
was constructed, the first ever known, some of which 
are in use even to this day. 

Did she question him as to his conception of God? 
He was a theologian. Was not his Temple in evi- 
dence? He showed her its gilded dome, its two great 
pillars, Jachin and Boaz, its marble courts, the great 
quadrangle with the cloister known as “Solomon’s 
Porch.” He doubtless told her that a hundred and 
eighty-three thousand workmen had been employed 
for seven years in building it. He led her up the 
great marble stairway, and “she marveled at the ascent 
by which he went up into the House of the Lord, so 
that there was no more spirit in her.” 

But when she came to the question which, above 
all else, had been vexing her soul, he could not an- 
swer it. At the point of practical religion his wisdom 
failed him. His prayer at Gibeon had been for “wis- 
dom to govern so great a people”; and this had been 
abundantly given him. He knew God only as the 
great Commissary who supplied his royal needs. As 
to the effect of that wisdom on his moral life and 
character, his visitor must draw her own conclusions. 
He might speak as he pleased about God; she, having 
her eyes about her, could not but observe that his 
theology had not made him a good man. She saw 
that he had increased his revenues by the taxing of 
his people and provinces, until he “surpassed all the 
kings of the earth in riches.” She saw his vast re- 
sources of pleasure, his harem, his choirs of singing 
men and singing women, his “ivory and apes and pea- 
cocks.” She placed his overweening pride and ambi- 


144 Wayfarers of the Bible 


tion over against his scandalous disregard of the stern 
behests of duty. In the scroll of Ecclesiastes which 
he had given her, she read the monologue of a man 
who had traversed the whole circumference of human 
experience and reached the conclusion that “the fear 
of God, this is wisdom; and to keep his command- 
ments, this is understanding” ; but in the life and con- 
duct of Solomon she saw no counterpart of that maxim 
nor any evidence of the fear of God. 

So she “turned and went away to her own land, she 
and her servants.” Disappointed! She had ques- 
tioned him in the minor realms of knowledge and his 
cleverness amazed her; but when she propounded the 
deep questions of the soul, as to sin and its remedy, 
the obligations of duty, the deep secret of character, 
and the deeper secret of the life beyond, he had naught 
to say, or if he spoke, his life spoke louder than his 
words. It was difficult indeed to engage his thought 
on these important problems; his mind ever reverting 
to sordid things. He had great stores of knowledge; 
but, alas! they were devoted to base and selfish uses. 

A thousand years later a Man of the people stood in 
Solomon’s Porch with the people gathered about him. 
He was a peasant of Nazareth, with little or none of 
the wisdom of the schools, yet they said of him, 
“Never man spake like this man!” He solved the 
problems which Solomon could not solve, he dis- 
coursed on the things of eternity and answered the 
question of life. He spoke of the lilies of the field 
and of the fowls of the air, but in no scientific way. 
He made no contributions to literature; never wrote 
a line so far as we know, except on one occasion, when 


Wayfarers of the Bible 145 


the rabbis dragged a guilty woman into his presence 
and demanded how he would deal with her; then he 
wrote on the dust of the cloister floor, “Let him that is 
without sin first cast a stone at her.” He made but 
~a single contribution to the science of industrial eco- 
nomics, and that in one sentence, which was destined 
to determine the relations of labor and capital for all 
time; to wit, “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” In 
the sphere of politics he made only one deliverance, 
but that covered all; namely, “Render unto Cesar the 
things that are Czsar’s, and unto God the things that 
are God’s.” Nor did he formulate any system of the- 
ology ; he assumed God as the postulate of truth. 

He held himself rigidly to the philosophy of life. 
The three great truths which he preached were those 
which all, in common with the Queen of the South, 
desire to know. As to man, he taught that, made in 
God’s likeness, he has fallen from his high estate 
through sin. As to God, he taught that his great de- 
sire is to save man. And the gospel which he 
preached was “the gospel of reconciliation.” He af- 
firmed that he was himself the Son of God, who came 
forth to suffer and die vicariously, so that whosoever 
would believe in him might be reconciled with God. 
It is said of Thebes that it had a thousand gates; but 
his city, the New Jerusalem, has only one. Christ 
said, “I am the door—he that believeth on the Son hath 
everlasting life; and he that believeth not, the wrath of 
God abideth on him.” 

This is his answer to the universal query, “How 
shall God be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly ?” 
and “How shall a sinful man be just with God?” 


146 Wayfarers of the Bible 


Were the people interested? Did they show the 
same solicitude that brought Balkis over the desert 
and mountains? Nay; dull, stolid, indifferent, they 
would not heed him. “He came unto his own and his 
own received him not.” The religious leaders derided 
him, and the people clamored for the death of this 
great Teacher who pointed out the way of everlast- 
ing life. He stretched out his hands to them in vain. 
He pleaded with them: “Ye will not come unto me 
that ye might have life!” They did not care. They 
did not want to know. It was under such circum- 
stances that he said, “The Queen of the South 
shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, 
and shall condemn it: for she came from the utter- 
most parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Sol- 
omon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is 
here!” 

And he is still here. The “greater than Solomon” 
is ever with us. “We may not climb the heavenly 
steeps to bring the Lord Christ down.” His wisdom 
is the wonder of the world. Men are ever saying, 
“The half was never told.” Yet they go about the 
streets chasing the yellow dust and the thistledown of 
life, and heeding him not. How the Queen of the 
South puts such indifference to shame! The light of 
the world is here and men prefer to walk in darkness. 
The solution of the problem of life is at hand and they 
would rather worship the Sphinx. The heavens are 
open; and they, “forever hastening to the grave, stoop 
downward as they run.” Out of the open heavens 
comes a voice, “This is my beloved Son; hear ye him 7 
and they say, “Behold, it thundereth !” 


Wayfarers of the Bible 147 


“Yet some there be that, by due steps, aspire 
To lay their just hand on the golden key, 
That opes the palace of eternity ;” 


and for these the wisdom whose price is above rubies 
is offered in the gospel of Christ. By faith in him 
they pass through the door into the great temple of 
truth and righteousness. To hear and follow him is 
life eternal. “He came unto his own, and his own 
received him not; but to as many as received him, to 
them gave he power to become the sons of God.” 


JOURNEY XV 


IN WHICH JEROBOAM, TO HIS SORROW, IS RECALLED 
FROM EXILE 


In reading the chronicles of the Kings of Israel we 
frequently come upon the name of Jeroboam, and it is 
almost always characterized in this manner, “Jero- 
boam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” 
This is repeated no less than eighteen times with 
weary reiteration. Think of a man standing in the 
pillory three thousand years with that placard over 
him! Why is he thus branded and dishonored? 
What did he do to deserve it? 

He was a Jew; a widow’s son, distinguished as a 
civil engineer. He had begun at the foot of the lad- 
der, lending a hand with pick and shovel in the repair- 
ing of the fortifications of Millo. The eyes of King 
Solomon fell upon the tall, broad-shouldered youth, 
and, admiring his industry and cleverness, he pro- 
moted him step by step until he was made Superin- 
tendent of Public Works and placed in charge of 
thirty thousand men. His ambition grew with his 
advancement; and thus, at length, temptation over- 
came him. He was like many others of whom we 
say, “They cannot bear prosperity.” At this time in 
Israel there was much mourning among the people, 
owing to royal luxury and extravagance and to ex- 
cessive taxes and governmental impositions. The 

148 


Wayfarers of the Bible 149 


young engineer was approached by the malcontents 
and became involved in a conspiracy. Solomon got 
wind of it; the conspiracy collapsed; and Jeroboam 
fled to Egypt, where he was now living in impatient 
exile. 

At the death of Solomon the smouldering fire burst 
into a flame. His son, Rehoboam, refused to listen 
to the complaints of the people, saying, “My father 
chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with 
scorpions.” The Ten Tribes assembled and resolved 
on secession. The cry was raised, “To your tents, O 
Israel!” And we should be the last to find fault with 
them, since the state of affairs was much what it was 
in the Colonies when our forefathers came together 
in Independence Hall and drew up a notable protest 
beginning, “When in the course of human events it 
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the 
political bands which have connected them with an- 
other,” etc. When the question arose as to who should 
be the leader of the Ten Tribes, all eyes turned to 
Egypt; and Jeroboam was sent for. 

He had longed for that message and now hastened 
to answer it. He was probably not more than a fort- 
night on the way. The Israelites had consumed forty 
years in the same journey, when they came up “out 
of the house of their bondage”; but Jeroboam’s feet 
were winged with ambition as theirs were not. What 
dreams and visions stimulated him! He ran to meet 
his destiny. A crown danced before his eyes. 

He met the assembled people at Shechem and was 
formally inaugurated. Never was sweeter sound 
than that which greeted the ambitious youth, “God 


150 Wayfarers of the Bible 


save the king!” His hopes were realized at last. 
What an opportunity was now before him! What an 
outlook; if only he would govern in the fear of God. 

But, alas! he began in the wrong way. Thinking 
only of personal advancement he left God out of the 
reckoning. That was a desperate blunder. His reign 
of two and twenty years is briefly summed up in three 
sins; all of them due to what Spenser calls “the 
sacred hunger of an ambitious minde.” 


His first sin was against God, in setting up the 
golden calves. 


From the standpoint of a godless king this was a 
good policy. He reasoned thus: “The law requires 
that the people shall go to Jerusalem to attend the 
three annual festivals. If they do this, it is only a 
question of time when they return to their former al- 
legiance. We must, therefore, have our own centers 
of worship ; and where better than at Dan in the North 
and Bethel in the South, both places consecrated by 
sacred associations? As we cannot have the Ark of 
the Covenant we must devise some other visible sym- 
bol of the presence of God. And what better than 
two golden calves, with faces like those of the mys- 
tical figures over the Ark?” 

The shrines were dedicated accordingly, and the 
royal proclamation went forth, “These be your gods, 
O Israel!” 

From the standpoint of mere statecraft this may 
have been “good policy” ; but it was bad religion. Any 
form of idolatry is offensive to God. It is not neces- 
sary to set up a golden calf. We may make an idol 


Wayfarers of the Bible 151 


of wealth or pleasure or honor. We may frame an 
idol out of our imagination. All gods are false, ex- 
cept the One who has revealed himself in his word 
as the true God. And anything is an idol which is 
served or honored more than we serve and honor him. 


The second sin of Jeroboam was against himself. 


He was warned twice, but refused to give heed. On 
one occasion, as he ministered at the altar, presuming 
to burn incense there, an unknown and unnamed 
prophet stood beside him, crying, “O altar, altar! 
Thus saith the Lord: A child shall be born, who shall 
destroy the priests of the high places and burn men’s 
bones upon thee!” And when Jeroboam stretched 
forth his hand and cried, “Lay hold upon him!” his 
hand was palsied, so that he must needs entreat the 
Lord to restore it. 

On another occasion his son, the heir-apparent, be- 
ing desperately ill, the king, knowing the futility of 
praying to the golden calves, sent his wife in disguise 
to the prophet at Shiloh. As she approached the 
prophet’s door he cried, “Come in, thou wife of Jero- 
boam! Why feignest thou thyself to be another? I 
have heavy tidings for thee. Go tell Jeroboam, Thou 
hast done evil; therefore, I will bring evil upon thy 
house, for the Lord hath spoken it!” 

All warnings were lost upon this man. He was like 
a sailor who refuses to heed the beacons on a dan- 
gerous shore. God did the best he could for him, as 
he does for every sinner. He warns, promises, en- 
treats in vain. He sends blessings innumerable, then 
chastisements, sorrow, adversity to no purpose. Be- 


152 Wayfarers of the Bible 


ing wedded to their sins, and blind to self-interest, they 
“run upon the bosses of the shield of God.” 


The third sin of this man was against the people. 


His influence was like the deadly upas tree; and 
they sat under it. He “made Israel to sin.” He is- 
sued a proclamation requiring them to bow at the 
idolatrous shrines; and, during all the subsequent his- 
tory of the Ten Tribes, that baneful shadow was over 
them. They had nineteen kings, before they were led 
away into exile, and there was not a godly man among 
them. One after another they took their places in 
the pillory beside him, being stigmatized on this wise, 
“he forgat God and followed in the steps of Jeroboam, 
the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” 

But why do we have the record of these sins? 
Would it not have been kinder to pass over them in 
silence? In the Assembly Hall of the Military 
Academy at West Point you may see the portraits of 
the various captains who have commanded there. 
One place, however, is left blank; it is the place that 
should have been occupied by Benedict Arnold, the 
traitor. The picture of Jeroboam might, in like man- 
ner, have been turned to the wall, but for the fact that 
the reiteration of his sin carries a great lesson with 
it, namely the perpetuity of influence. “No man liveth 
unto himself and no man dieth unto himself.” 


There are two kinds of influence. The first is vol- 
untary. 


Jeroboam’s sins were not inadvertent; he meant to 
have the people worship the golden calves. He did 


Wayfarers of the Bible 153 


wrong, and misled others deliberately. There are 
many who do likewise; thieves, rum-sellers, dive- 
keepers, managers of Sunday theaters, purveyors of 
unclean literature, and authors of infidel books; these 
do evil with malice aforethought. Not content with 
~ ruining themselves, they plan to ruin the unwary. To 
all such the word of the Master applies: “It must 
needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by 
whom the offense cometh! It were better for him that 
a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he 
were drowned in the depth of the sea.” 

But there are multitudes, also, who do good, and in- 
tend to do it. The world is full of them; teachers of 
truth, “sisters of mercy,’ life-savers, and philan- 
thropists, who speak the seasonable word which is like 
apples of gold in baskets of silver, and who eagerly 
stretch forth the helping hand. To such the word of the 
Master applies: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
of the least of these, ye have done it unto me.” 


The other kind of influence is automatic. 


And this is by far the largest force in life. For 
influence does not wait to be exerted, it exerts itself 
whether we will or not. I used to go fishing for trout 
in a clear stream among the Pocono Hills; but when 
I was last there the waters were dull and dark, and 
my errand was vain. The man who had built a 
paper mill up above did not mean to kill the fish; nev- 
ertheless he had effectually accomplished it. 

John Mills, who translated Chambers’ Encyclopedia 
into French in 1743, was moved by no worse motive 
than that of personal gain. But when, with that end 


154 Wayfarers of the Bible 


in view, he enlisted the services of Voltaire, Rousseau, 
Diderot, and others of that infidel group, he set in 
operation forces which fifty years later brought on the 
Reign of Terror, and drenched Paris with blood. It 
is thus that men do evil without intending it. 

And good is done in the same way. Peter was 
probably not aware that there was virtue in his 
shadow. My first Sunday-school teacher did not 
dream that his example would abide with me through 
the years like a guiding star. Seneca said, “The peo- 
ple learn more from the manners of Socrates than 
from his philosophy.” When the statue of George 
Peabody was unveiled in London, the sculptor, Story, 
was invited to speak. Having no gift of eloquence, 
he pointed twice to the statue, saying, “That is my 
speech!’ Who shall measure the influence of the 
Christian mothers who, all over the world, are teach- 
ing their children the precepts of the gospel, and, bet- 
ter still, living the simple Christian life before them? 
A deaf mute, who habitually attended church, wrote to 
his pastor in a despondent mood, “I can do nothing 
for Christ”; to which the minister replied, “By the 
silent force of your example you are bringing people 
within the hearing of the gospel. You are my right- 
hand man.” 


It remains to be said that influence of either kind 
is immortal. 


A man who had lived an evil life said on his death- 
bed, “I wish you could gather up my influence and 
bury it with me.” That could not be. His body 
might lie in the sepulchre, and his name be forgotten; 


Wayfarers of the Bible 15 


but “the evil a man does lives after him.” Of 
all the kings that followed Jeroboam, not one was so 
alive as Jeroboam himself, though he had been “gath- 
ered unto his fathers”; for through Nadab and Baasha 
and Elah and Zimri, and the others he was still ‘‘mak- 
ing Israel to sin.” 

And the influence of right-living men is likewise 
immortal: “they do rest from their labors, but their 
works do follow them.” The odor of the spikenard 
with which an unknown woman once anointed the feet 
of Jesus has come down through the centuries; her 
deed being told “as a memorial of her.” So the dead 
are really the living. We are guided by the memory 
of those whom we have “loved and lost awhile.” 
Goodness is proof “’gainst the tooth of time and rasure 
of oblivion.” 

If a fixed star were to be extinguished in the dis- 
tant heavens it would be a million years before the 
people of this world would discover it. Its beams 
would still be shining on. 

“So when a good man dies, 
For years beyond our ken 


The light he leaves behind him lies 
Upon the paths of men.” 


The lesson is plain. Let us look to our influence! 
But how? The secret of doing good is being good. 
Can men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 
“A good man out of the treasure of his heart bringeth 
forth good fruit.” Our influence is never better than 
our character ; and character has its seat and center in 
the heart. 

If we would set ourselves right in this matter, the 


156 Wayfarers of the Bible 


first thing to do is to come to Christ, that we may rid 
ourselves of sin; and all the rest is following him; 
that is, believing his teaching, doing his work, and 
striving to be like him. See to your character, and 
your influence is sure. Light cannot help shining. It 
sounds no trumpets, waves no banners, makes no an- 
nouncement of its coming, but just comes. Let your 
light so shine before men that they may see your good 
works and glorify God. 


“O may I join the choir invisible 
Of those immortal dead, who live again 
In minds made better by their presence; live 
In pulses stirred to generosity, 
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn 
For miserable aims that end with self, 
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars 
And with their mild persistence urge man’s search 
To vaster issues.” 


JOURNEY XVI 


IN WHICH ELIJAH GOES BRAVELY TO THE BATTLE OF 
THE GODS 


In the heights of Gilead, to the east of the Jordan, 
the prophet had spent three weary years. A price was 
on his head. He had fled from the wrath of Ahab 
and his fierce consort, and was glad of the shelter of 
these lonely hills. 

But the hour for action was at hand. The word of 
the Lord came unto him, saying, “Arise and go!” For 
this man, to hear was to obey. He was naturally a 
timid man, and he knew the dangers before him; but, 
relying on the God who had never yet failed him, he 
girt his sheepskin coat about him, grasped his staff 
firmly, and set out to beard the lion in his den. 

A day’s journey along the mountain paths, brought 
him to the valley of the Jordan, where he found him- 
self amid the horrors of famine. For three frightful 
years there had been no rain nor dew. In the parched 
fields the lean cattle went lowing for water in vain. 
As he passed through the villages he marked the gaunt 
faces of the famishing people, and saw the dead lying 
unburied in the streets. It was a sad journey even 
for a stern messenger of justice. Did he ask, “Is it 
right that a whole people should suffer in this manner 
for their sovereign’s sin?” The answer was at hand. 
What were these altars by the wayside where worship- 

157 


158 Wayfarers of the Bible 


ers knelt, crying, “O Baal, hear us’? And why 
were all the hilltops crowned with groves devoted to 
the worship of the unclean Ashtoreth? There were 
signs of apostasy on every hand. The people had 
departed from God! 

The lone prophet journeyed on, saluting no man by 
the way, nor pausing at the voice of suffering and 
sorrow, until he reached the palace at Samaria. The 
king greeted him angrily, “Art thou he that troubleth 
Israel?’ His answer was equally abrupt: “I have 
not troubled Israel; but thou and thy father’s house, 
in that ye have forsaken the Lord.” And without 
further ceremony he proceeded to the matter in hand. 
He had come to propose a challenge: “Call the peo- 
ple together at Mount Carmel. Let there be two al- 
tars; one for Baal and one for Jehovah; and the God 
that answereth by fire, let him be God!” 

His next appeal was to the assembled people : “How 
long halt ye between two opinions? If Jehovah be 
God, follow him; and if Baal, then follow him.” And 
they answered him not a word. Then the challenge 
again: “I only remain a prophet of Jehovah; but the 
prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty. Let us 
have two altars, and a bullock on each. The prophets 
of Baal shall call upon his name, and I will call upon 
the name of Jehovah; and the God that answereth by 
fire, let him be God!” The fairness of the proposition 
was obvious; the people answered, “It is well spoken.” 

The last appeal was to the priests themselves: “Lay 
your bullock on the altar, but kindle no fire beneath it; 
make your prayer, and I will make mine; and the God 
that answereth by fire, let him be God!” 


Wayfarers of the Bible 159 


The day was at hand. The people were assembled 
on Carmel to witness the ordeal. To the westward 
the morning mists were rising from the Mediterra- 
nean; on the east lay the historic battlefield of Esdrae- 
lon, where once and again the cry had been heard, “To 
the help of the Lord against the mighty!” The sword 
of the Lord and of Gideon had there prevailed against 
the Midianites. The stars in their courses had there 
fought against Sisera. But never was battle like this; 
the Battle of the Gods. Eight hundred and fifty priests 
of the royal religion—including four hundred priests 
of the goddess Ashtoreth—encircled the altar on which 
the bullock had been laid, and made their prayer, from 
morning until noon, “O Baal, hear!’ Meanwhile, 
Elijah mocked them, “Cry aloud, for he isa god! He 
is talking, or pursuing, or he is on a journey, or per- 
adventure he sleepeth!”’ But there was no voice, nor 
answer, nor any that regarded. At the hour of the 
evening sacrifice the lone prophet stood beside his 
altar and calmly made his prayer: “God of Abraham 
and of Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day 
that thou art God! Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that 
this people may know that thou art God!” Was there 
any now that regarded? Lo, yonder in the twilight 
sky a falling fleece of fire! In awestruck silence the 
people saw it descending lower and lower, until it 
touched the sacrifice and consumed it. The logic of 
the argument was irresistible. The people cried with 
one accord, “The Lord he is God! The Lord he is 
God!” 

Is there any parallel in history? O yes; a parallel 
of such convincing power that it quite eclipses the stu- 


160 Wayfarers of the Bible 


pendous logic of that controversy on Carmel. We 
must needs go to Calvary if we would behold the great 
battle of the gods. 

Up in the sparsely settled regions of Galilee, dwelt 
the Prophet of Nazareth; he, too, sought shelter from 
persecution. A price was on his head. The three 
years of his ministry were over, and the hour had come 
when he must confront the powers that be. He set 
out for Jerusalem by the caravan route through Perza. 
It was an historic journey. The shadow of the cross 
was over him. He knew all that awaited him; yet, 
with the heroism of an absolute self-sacrifice, “he set 
his face steadfastly to go.” Did he see famine and 
apostasy along the way? Aye; such spiritual declen- 
sion as the world had never seen, and an utter famine 
of the Word. On reaching Jerusalem he confronted 
the wrath of Cesar, and stretched out his hands to the 
people, saying, “If the Lord be God, why do ye not 
follow him?” He came to a close grapple with the 
priests of the Establishment, saying, “Woe unto you, 
mask-wearers! How shall ye escape the damnation 
of hell?” He made his challenge; and they accepted 
it. The controversy was at Golgotha. He was at 
once the ministering priest and the sacrifice upon the 
altar. He made his last prayer with his hands out- 
stretched on the cross; and the descending fire con- 
sumed him as a whole burnt-offering for the world’s 
sin. 

But where were the answering cries of approval? 
Silence! The people dispersed, and the shadows of 
night gathered about the Cross. In the distance stood 
a group of fear-stricken disciples, saying to one an- 


Wayfarers of the Bible 161 


other, “We hoped that it had been he who should have 
delivered Israel!’ A few women sobbed their hope- 
less grief: and that was all. 

But wait until the seal of resurrection is put upon 
that miracle, and you shall hear a voice, ever and anon, 
saying, “The Lord he is God!” And there will be 
other voices as the years and centuries pass on until 
the world will ring with it. By the power of truth, 
by the triumph of righteousness, by the logic of events, 
by the philosophy of history, by the blood of the Atone- 
ment, the Lord he is God! 

In this great controversy, of which Carmel was but 
a shadow-picture, we find the ultimate solution of the 
problem of God. 

The world is ever asking, “Is there a God; and 
where and what is he?” The answer is not to be 
found in reviews nor in scientific and philosophic in- 
vestigations, nor even in our Theological Seminaries 
where the “ontological” and “teleological” and “cos- 
mological” arguments are presented in all their phases. 
The final answer is by the altar of Calvary, at the Bat- 
tle of the Gods. 

To begin with, here is the argument for the exist- 
ence of God. 

Else whence the fire from heaven? The most unac- 
countable thing in human history is the passion of 
Christ. The wisest of the group of French infidels 
who corrupted the faith of the world a hundred years 
ago, was Rousseau, who was constrained to say, 
“Jesus died like a God!” We must needs have a God 
to account for this passion of God. He who stands 
at the Cross and views it calmly and dispassionately, 


162 Wayfarers of the Bible 


must say, as Moses did when he saw the bush aflame in 
the desert of Midian, “I will turn aside and see this 
great thing.” And out of the burning bush the Voice 
answers, “I am that I zm!” So speaks, for himself, 
the self-existent One. 

And here is the argument for the unity of God. 

In the free-thinking of our time it is not infre- 
quently affirmed that it is a matter of indifference what 
God a man believes in, if only he live well. The Scrip- 
tures declare, on the contrary, that the “Lord our 
God is a jealous God, and will not that his honor shall 
be given to another.” The Jews who stood in that 
great assemblage on Carmel had frontlets on their 
foreheads whereon was written, “Hear, O Israel, the 
Lord our God is one Lord!” and “Thou shalt have no 
other Gods before him!” The sequel of that contro- 
versy appalls us. At the order of Elijah the four hun- 
dred and fifty priests of the false gods of Israel were 
brought down to the brook Kishon and slain! Is not 
this, however, the retribution which has befallen the 
priests of all pagan gods? What else is the meaning 
of the ruined shrines and temples that line the path of 
history? Where is the Pantheon? And where are 
the Schools of Philosophy that stood by the banks 
of the Ilyssus? The saddest graves on earth are those 
of the dead religions. Dagon is ever falling on his 
face before the Ark of God. There is room for only 
one God in this world. The religion that was vindi- 
cated once for all on Calvary is slowly, relentlessly, 
surely crowding all other religions to the wall. The 
people of Athens walked between a procession of 
philosophers and a colonnade of graven images to the 


Wayfarers of the Bible 163 


place where they hopelessly reared their altar “To an 
unknown God.” To them came Paul, with the story of 
the fire that fell on Calvary to seal the sacrifice of di- 
vine compassion for guilty men, saying, “Him whom 
ye ignorantly worship declare I unto you!” 

The failure of the false religions has been gro- 
tesquely pathetic. The derision of Elijah on Carmel 
is merely an echo of that divine burst of laughter out 
of heaven at the kings and rulers who cry, “Let us 
break his bands asunder and cast away his cords from 
us!” He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh! The 
temples crumble, the priests die; one altar remains, the 
Cross on Calvary, the sole altar of the true God. 

And, again, we have here the argument for the 
prayer-hearing God. 

We are told by unbelievers that prayer has only a 
reflexive power; that is to say, its sole efficacy lies in 
its reactive influence on the petitioner. This is true of 
all prayers except those which are offered to the true 
God. “O Baal, hear us!” But there is no voice, nor 
answer, nor any that regardeth. The great prayer of 
the world is for deliverance from sin; and the answer 
to that prayer is at the cross: God so loved the world 
that he gave his only-begotten Son to suffer and die 
for us. Then comes the a fortiori logic of the apostle: 
“Tf God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up 
for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all 
things?’ Here is the seal of divine approval put on 
all the great promises as to prayer, such as, “Ask, and 
it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, 
and it shall be opened unto you.” There is no fact 
in human experience so conclusively proven as the effi- 


164 Wayfarers of the Bible 


cacy of prayer. Line up the witnesses, millions on 
millions, and hear their testimony ; “This poor man 
cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of 
all his troubles.” Let any court of justice pass on that 
testimony, and what would the verdict be? Shall a 
fact be established by the mouth of two witnesses ? 
What, then, of millions? Shall those who have prayed 
to Baal and heard no response, be allowed to offer 
their testimony in rebuttal? Such a proposal would 
be laughed out of any court. Call Bartimeus, the 
blind beggar who sat by the wayside in the Vale of 
Jericho: “I was blind from my birth,” he says, “until 
I made my prayer, ‘Jesus, thou son of David, have 
mercy on me!’ And he answered, ‘What wilt thou?’ 
And I cried, ‘O that I might receive my sight! He 
said, ‘Receive thy sight!’ And behold these open 
eyes!” On the word of innumerable witnesses such 
as he, rests the argument of the prayer-hearing God, 

And, once more, we have at Calvary the argument 
for the God of Salvation. 

Our God is the God of Salvation; blessed be his 
name! And this is the great factor in the theistic 
problem. By the cross we are given to understand 
that God has power to deliver from sin. By the fire 
that consumed the sacrifice we know that he can save 
unto the uttermost all that will come unto him. “And 
there is none other name under heaven, given among 
men, whereby we must be saved.” The God of Grace 
is the only God. The God that answereth by fire, let 
him be God! The passion of Christ is the convincing 
proof of Christ’s divinity. We know God by the print 
of the nails in his hands. Are you a doubter? Have 


Wayfarers of the Bible 165 


you gone groping, like Job, and saying, “O that I knew 
where I might find him”? Come, then, as doubting 
Thomas did, and hear the God of Calvary say, “Reach 
hither thy finger and thrust it into these wounds; and 
be not faithless, but believing.” It is a wonderful fact 
that the death of Jesus, which marks the lowest point 
of divine humiliation, is the very climax of the argu- 
ment for his Godhood. All doubts are solved when 
we solve the mystery of the Atonement; for then, per- 
ceiving how the Lord hath answered by fire, we cry, 
like Thomas, “My Lord and my God!” 

But this is not convincing to all. The God who has 
unveiled himself as “Christ crucified” is ever “fool- 
ishness to the Greeks and a stumbling-block to the 
Jews.” The natural heart is averse to the logic of 
God. In life’s brightest hours we are loath to think 
of it. The people who went away from Carmel, cry- 
ing, “The Lord he is God!” were only temporarily 
impressed, and soon returned to the worship of Baal. 
The Lord’s controversy is going on all about us. We 
are surrounded by irrefutable proofs that God lives 
and answers prayer, and saves those who penitently 
call upon him. But “the world is so much with us”; 
we are too busy to attend to these things. The only 
rational plan to pursue is to clinch the impression by 
a resolution, here and now, “If the Lord be God, we 
will follow him.” 

The hour is coming when every one of us must face 
the problem. What shall we do in the swellings of 
Jordan? In a ministry of thirty-odd years, I have 
never known a man or woman who, on approaching 
death, in possession of reason, did not seek the God 


166 Wayfarers of the Bible 


of salvation. The mother of David Hume, a simple- 
hearted Scotchwoman, forsook the religion of Christ, 
and followed her son into infidelity ; but O, the dreari- 
ness of it! Not even her devotion to her brilliant son 
could comfort her. On her death-bed she wrote him 
a letter, full of pathetic entreaty that he would give 
her back her God, her Bible, and her Saviour. The 
prayer to Baal is unavailing. No man offers it in the 
hour that trieth his soul. The God of Calvary, the 
God that answereth by fire, the God of Salvation, alone 
can then help us. 


JOURNEY XVI 


IN WHICH THE TEN TRIBES, HAVING FINISHED THEIR 
COURSE, PASS INTO OBLIVION 


Tue story of the overthrow of the Northern King- 
dom and the carrying away of the Ten Tribes is 
fraught with tragic interest. The time was about 
720 B.c. This was two hundred and fifty years after 
the secession under Jeroboam, the man in the pillory, 
“ho made Israel to sin.” The last in the dismal pro- 
cession of wicked kings was Hoshea, who, after pay- 
ing tribute for a time to Assyria, was detected in a 
counter-plot with Egypt, and shut up in prison. The 
capital city was besieged, and, after a desperate de- 
fense of three years, was obliged by stress of famine 
and pestilence to surrender. The homes and palaces 
were razed, and their stones rolled into the valley be- 
low. “The crown of pride and the glory of Ephraim 
was trodden under foot.” The ruins of royal wicked- 
ness were given over to the ow! and the bittern. 

And what became of the captives? They were car- 
ried away in successive deportations toward the east. 
But whither? Where were “Halah and Habor by the 
river of Gozan’”? There have been countless conjec- 
tures. Rawlinson says, “The Ten Tribes are found a 
hundred times in a hundred different lands.” They 
have been located here and there and everywhere, 
from the foot of the Himalayas to the Irish Sea. In 
the apocryphal book of Esdras it is recorded that they, 

167 


168 Wayfarers of the Bible 


were “carried over the waters to the land of Arsareth, 
a country hemmed in by mountains, where mankind 
never dwelt.” They have been identified with the 
Celts, the Anglo-Saxons, the Mongolians, the Aborigi- 
nes of North America, the Nestorians, indeed with 
almost every nation on earth. And still the mystery 
remains. 

In point of fact there is no “mystery” ; and there are 
no “lost tribes.” It was only the people of the cities 
who were carried away into captivity; the farmers 
were left, for prudential reasons, to till the fields; and 
colonists were brought in from Assyria, who mingled 
with them, producing the mongrel race of Samaritans, 
with whom the Jews “had no dealings” in the time of 
Christ, and whose descendants are regarded con- 
temptuously to this day. Of those who were carried 
away it is probable that many were, in process of time, 
amalgamated with their captors, while others returned 
to Palestine with their brethren under the decree of 
Cyrus. Thus the Ten Tribes were scattered, but not 
“lost”; as the Lord had said, “I will sift the house of 
Israel among all nations, as corn is sifted in a sieve, 
yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth” (Amos 
ix,9). One of the poets in writing of this dispersion, 
says: 

“Like dew on the mountain, 
Like the foam on the river, 


Like the bubble on the fountain, 
They are gone forever.” 


But they were not gone out of the divine sight and 
providential care. He who notes the fall of a wounded 
sparrow was mindful of them all. 


Wayfarers of the Bible 169 


But the Northern Kingdom was no more. The last 
trace of its government was blotted out. All tribal 
distinctions were obliterated. The nation as such was 
extinguished like a falling star, leaving only a lurid 
trail behind it. 

There is no logic like the logic of events ; and there 
is no philosophy like the philosophy of history. As 
we note the vanishing troops of captives, with their 
faces set toward an unknown destination, we are 
bound to emphasize some important facts. 

To begin with, Jehovah is God. 

This was the basic truth of Jewish life. It was an- 
nounced to Moses out of the burning bush in the 
Desert of Midian: “And God said, I am that I am. 
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jeho- 
vah hath sent me unto you.” It was set forth with 
the manifold emphasis of the successive plagues at 
the Court of Pharaoh, when Moses said, “Thus saith 
Jehovah, Let my people go !” Tt was proclaimed with 
the solemnity of a fundamental statute from the flam- 
ing mountain, when, amid thunders and lightnings and 
the sound of the trumpet waxing louder and louder, 
a Voice was heard saying, “I am Jehovah your God, 
who hath brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, 
out of the house of your bondage. Thou shalt have 
no other gods before me!” 

The trouble began in the Northern Kingdom when 
Jeroboam set up the golden calves at Dan and Bethel. 
It was only a question of time when this specious form 
of idolatry would develop into deeper sin. The shrines 
of Moloch were introduced, and the people offered up 
their children in his fiery arms. Then came the orgies 


170 Wayfarers of the Bible 


in the groves of Ashtoreth, the goddess of unclean- 
ness. So the nation went from bad to worse con- 
tinually, during its lifetime of two hundred and fifty 
years, until the doom was pronounced, “because they 
hardened their neck and would not believe in Jehovah 
their God.” 

It has been said that nations are like individuals in 
that they have their infancy, their joyous youth, their 
vigorous manhood, and then decrepitude and death. 
Shall it be so with our Republic? God forbid! Yet 
this has been the destiny of nations from the beginning 
until now. The pathway of the centuries is lined with 
the ruins of thrones and dynasties. If there is any 
truth in history, the life of our Republic will be meas- 
ured by its loyalty to Jehovah as the true God. 

In the announcement of the hymns in divine service 
it is not uncommon for the minister to say, “We shall 
omit the last verse.” But to treat our National An- 
them thus would be to lose the entire pith and point of 
it. The first verse is, 


“My country, ’tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 
Of thee we sing: 
Land where our fathers died, 
Land of the Pilgrims’ pride, 
From every mountain side 
Let freedom ring.” 


It is not enough, however, to sing the praises of free- 
dom; for freedom is an empty name unless it be 
founded on a just recognition of him who has made 
and preserved us a nation. Wherefore, sing on! Sing 
to the logical end: 


Wayfarers of the Bible 171 


“Our fathers’ God, to thee, 
Author of liberty, 
To thee we sing: 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom’s holy light; 
Protect us by thy might, 
Great God, our King!” 
It is-a true saying, “The nation and kingdom that will 
not serve him shall perish.” The only reason why our 
Republic may not continue until the end of time lies 
in the possibility of its departure from God. 

And another truth to be learned from the dispersion 
of the Ten Tribes is this: The Law of Jehovah is 
Irrevocable. 

The sum total of divine law on its retributive side 
is, “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” This is true 
of nations as of men. With nations the death is 
annihilation, in the necessity of the case. For a nation 
has no life beyond the circumscription of time; 
wherefore, it must be dealt with under the law of ex- 
act retribution; that is, its accounts must be balanced 
here and now. 

Tt is not so, however, with individuals. A man, 
unlike a nation, is immortal. This must be considered 
in any rational view of Providence. We see the right- 
eous afflicted and the wicked “flourishing like a green 
bay tree”; but remember, time is only a small arc of 
the great circle of eternity which constitutes the life- 
time of a man. The God who, as Anne of Austria 
said, “is a sure paymaster,” has the unending eons in 
which to balance his accounts with us. Wherefore, 
the death of a man is not annihilation, but a spiritual 
death of shame and remorse for wasted privileges and 


172 Wayfarers of the Bible 


lost opportunities. The seed-sowing is here; the reap- 
ing is forever. And “whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap.” The law is implacable: “The soul 
that sinneth it shall die.” 

And that is a good law. It involves a principle 
which lies at the very basis of social order and per- 
sonal well-being. The fact that it means retribution 
does not affect its integrity. No one doubts that the 
law of gravity, by which the worlds are kept true to 
their orbits, is a good law; yet the average life of a 
“lofter” (that is, a workman engaged on the steel 
framework of our great buildings) is said to be only 
ten years. By the law of gravity, men are falling 
and dying every day; yet no one blames the law 
for it. 

The law of retribution works automatically. If it 
could be supposed that there were no God in the uni- 
verse, with the present order of things remaining, it 
would still be true that the soul that sinneth shall die. 
A man recently convicted of murder in one of our 
municipal courts, cursed the magistrate who sentenced 
him to the gallows-tree. But was the magistrate to 
blame? Nay, rather the statute; nor even the statute 
except as it expresses a principle which is grounded in 
the necessities of social life. The men, women, and 
children who were carried away from their happy 
homes in Palestine to a perpetual exile, had only them- 
selves to blame for the doom which befell them. It is 
the part of God, in his magisterial office, to lay his 
forensic sanction upon a law which is interwoven with 
our nerves and sinews; “The soul that sinneth it shall 
die.” 


Wayfarers of the Bible 473 


Still another truth emphasized in this historic event 
is this: The Word of Jehovah is Yea and Amen. 

The people of the Northern Kingdom were en- 
trusted with the Oracles of God; but they were utterly 
false to their trust. In these days of Biblical contro- 
versy there are faint-hearted people who fear that the 
Scriptures are in danger. In fact, however, the as- 
sault upon the Citadel is no more vigorous to-day than 
it ever has been. There are more people who believe 
in the Bible than at any previous time; and there are 
more, too, who assault it. The argument has not 
changed. History repeats itself. “The thing that 
hath been shall be.’ The Ten Tribes took issue with 
their brethren of the Southern Kingdom in rejecting 
such portions of the Scriptures as did not satisfy their 
“inner consciousness”; and their descendants receive 
only the Pentateuch to this day. The most virulent 
attack of the mischievous critics of our time is 
against the truth of the prophetic writings; and it 
was precisely so among the Ten Tribes. Amos and 
Hosea were divinely sent to warn them of their im- 
pending fate, but all their warnings and entreaties 
were in vain. Amos cried, “Behold the days are com- 
ing, saith the Lord, when I will send a famine in the 
land; not a famine of bread nor a thirst of water, but 
a famine of hearing the Word of God. And it shall 
come to pass, saith Jehovah, that I will darken the 
earth in the clear day.” But the people derided him. 
Hosea cried, “How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim? 
How shall I deliver thee, O Israel? How shall I make 
thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim?” 
And the people said, mockingly, “Doth he not speak in 


174 Wayfarers of the Bible 


parables?” It is a significant fact that when Savona- 
rola was crying out against the maladministration of 
justice in Florence in the fifteenth century, he used 
over and over again with terrific emphasis the very 
words of these rejected prophets of Israel. Yet his 
hearers, under the lead of irreverent scholarship, 
heeded them not. “The prophets have not been ful- 
filled,’ says Harnack; and “There are prophecies 
which cannot be fulfilled,” adds Professor Briggs, “be- 
cause their time has passed by.” But what says 
Christ? ‘Not one jot or one tittle shall pass away till 
all be fulfilled.” And if further argument were needed 
in behalf of the truth of prophecy, it is found in a 
ubiquitous presence which cannot be gainsaid; to wit, 
the Wandering Jew. 


JOURNEY XVIII 


IN WHICH JUDAH AND BENJAMIN ARE LED INTO 
CAPTIVITY 


“I am Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, the ex- 
alted prince, favorite of Merodach, noble emperor, 
possessor of wisdom, seeker after truth, untiring ruler, 
wise, pious, first-born of Nabopolassar.” 

So begin the state papers of Nebuchadnezzar who, 
as the result of recent researches, is the best known of 
ancient Oriental kings. The Man with the Spade has 
unearthed his royal cities, his palaces and temples, and 
by the inscriptions brought to light has confirmed the 
records of Holy Writ. If the friends of the destruc- 
tive criticism would carry on a successful campaign, 
it behooves them to enjoin this Man with the Spade; 
for he invariably pays tribute to the historicity of the 
Word of God. 

In one of these inscriptions we have the prayer of 
Nebuchadnezzar at the beginning of one of his cam- 
paigns, possibly his campaign against Judah: “O 
Merodach, lord of all countries, hear me! May I 
live to enjoy the palace which I have built in Baby- 
lon. May I live long and prosper. May I be satis- 
fied with an abundance of children. May I receive 
large tribute from all the kings of the world. May my 
descendants rule forever.” 


175 


176 - Wayfarers of the Bible 


In another he refers to his triumphant return from 
a hostile excursion into some neighboring country; 
and the terms are such as to make it point with proba- 
bility to the conquest of Judah: “By Merodach’s help, 
to far-off countries, over distant mountains, from the 

upper to the lower sea, by long journeys and difficult 

ways, in pathless places, where no foothold could be 
found, by a road of hardships and without water, I 
pursued and subdued the rebellious. I repaired tem- 
ples and made the people prosperous. I removed both 
bad and good. Silver and gold and precious stones, 
copper, cedar, and other valuables in great abundance, 
products of the mountains and the seas, brought I to 
Babylon into the presence of Merodach.” 

The picture is that of a train of Jewish captives, 
chained together, on a weary journey toward the east. 
In front is Zedekiah, stripped of his royal purple, 
blinded, and put to an open shame. His princes follow, 
carrying bags of sand, the bags being made of the 
parchments of their sacred scrolls; and after them the 
people, taunted by their captors, “Sing us the songs of 
Zion!’ Such is the melancholy end of a thousand 
years. The landmarks of the nation are removed. 
The lights of the golden candlestick are quenched. If 
we follow these exiles, we shall hear their lament by 
the rivers of Babylon: “We sat down and wept; yea, 
we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our 
harps on the willows, and they required of us mirth, 
saying, Sing us the songs of Zion. How shall we 
sing the Lord’s songs in a strange land?” 

Why this tragic dénouement? The answer is clear: 
It was by reason of a violated Covenant. I am aware 


Wayfarers of the Bible 177 


that it is out of fashion to speak thus of the Covenant ; 
but the emphasis must be placed just there. It pleased 
God to make a Covenant with our first parents in the 
very hour when they fell into sin, to wit, “The Seed 
of woman shall bruise the serpent’s head, but it shall 
bruise his heel.” The plan of redemption was thus 
announced in brief. In the fullness of time the Seed of 
woman was to appear as the knight-errant of the fallen 
race, and thus appearing was to bear his commission 
as the Christ, that is, the Anointed One, who should 
become the conqueror of death in behalf of men. This 
was the Covenant; and the Seed of woman was him- 
self the messenger or Angel of the Covenant. All 
along the Old Testament story we mark the appear- 
ance of this Angel of the Covenant, known also under 
the name of Jehovah, as the vindicator of righteous- 
ness. The Messianic hope, thus outlined, runs like a 
red trail, from the protevangel in Paradise through 
the Old Testament Scriptures to their last prophecy, 
“The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in 
his wings.” 

This Covenant was iterated and reiterated again 
and again; and on four occasions with peculiar em- 
phasis. Once to Abraham when he was called and 
set apart with his household as “a peculiar people” ; 
peculiar in the fact that they were to be the deposi- 
tary of this Messianic hope. The “Voice” by which 
Abraham was guided on his strange journey along the 
banks of the Euphrates was the voice of Jehovah, the 
Angel of the Covenant; as he himself said after his 
incarnation, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he 
saw it and was glad.” 


178 Wayfarers of the Bible 


Again to Isaac, the most diffident and retiring of 
the patriarchs ; who, as he climbed up Mount Moriah, 
“bearing wood for the sacrifice,” set forth in parabolic 
foregleam and silhouette the great tragedy which was 
to be enacted on Calvary when Christ bore his cross 
to the place of execution and was made a sin-offering 
on our behalf. 

And again to Jacob; whose first vision of God’s sin- 
gular interest in sinful men came to him at Bethel, 
where he saw the ladder reaching from his lonely 
resting-place to the heavenly throne, with angels going 
up and down, bearing his prayers aloft, and descend- 
ing with blessings upon him. He lived thereafter in 
the memory of that vision until the time when, lean- 
ing on his staff, blind and burdened with years, he 
pronounced this blessing on Judah: “The scepter shall 
not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between 
his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the 
gathering of the nations be.” The Shiloh, or Prince 
of Peace, here predicted, is the Angel of the Covenant, 
incarnated as Christ the Saviour, or Immanuel, “God 
with us.” 

And then, with deepest emphasis, the Covenant was 
renewed to Moses; when the Angel of the Covenant 
appeared to him at the burning bush as Jehovah, and 
gave him his commission. The name of Moses is ac- 
counted worthy of a place in the roll-call of heroes 
because of his clear apprehension of the Messianic 
hope: as it is written, “By faith Moses, when he was 
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pha- 
raoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction 
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of 


Wayfarers of the Bible 179 


sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ 
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” 

It is thus evident that God’s purpose was to keep 
his people in mind of the Covenant. To this end he 
had separated them as a people unto himself, that they 
might transmit that Covenant to succeeding ages. 
Here is the clew to history. The central point is Cal- 
vary; all the lines of the Old Economy converged 
toward it and all subsequent lines have radiated from 
it. The key to “the logic of events” is the Kingship 
of Christ. This is that “Secret of the Lord,” of which 
it is written, “The secret of the Lord is with them that 
fear him, and he will show them his Covenant.” A 
reverent apprehension of this fact is necessary to a 
just interpretation not only of past chronicles but of 
passing events. 

The Covenant, thus continually called to mind, was 
as continually violated by those to whom God had en- 
trusted it. The story from Genesis to Malachi is a 
weary record of mutinous disloyalty; but there are 
four notable occasions on which the Covenant was so 
formally rejected as to hasten the final disinheritance 
of the chosen people. 

The first was in 1096 B.c., when the Jews revolted 
against the Theocracy, or Government of God, crying, 
“Give us a king to rule over us!’ And God gave 
them Saul the son of Kish, “to their hurt.’ The 
period of a hundred years that followed was, for a 
time, brightened by the faith of David, who, perceiv- 
ing the Kingship of Christ, regarded himself as vice- 
gerent under him; “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit 
thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies my 


180 Wayfarers of the Bible 


footstool!” Being “a man after God’s own heart,” he 
did obeisance to the Covenant and to Christ who was 
destined to be king over all. 

The second rejection was in 976 B.c., when the Ten 
Tribes revolted and raised the cry, “To your tents, O 
Israel!” They crowned Jeroboam who stands pil- 
loried historically as the king “who made Israel to 
sin.” He set up the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, 
and the people kissed their hands before them. Then 
came eighteen kings each worse than the former; and 
for two hundred and fifty years the Northern King- 
dom continued under a momentum that carried it from 
bad to worse, until Shalmanezer came and utterly 
blotted it out. 

The third rejection was in 586 B.c., when Nebu- 
chadnezzar made his campaign against Judea. Fora 
hundred and thirty-five years the Southern Kingdom 
had had an opportunity of profiting by the tragic story 
of the Ten Tribes, and wasted it. There was a brief 
reformation in the reign of Josiah, when the neglected 
Bible was found in a storeroom of the temple and 
read before the people, who bowed down in repentance 
and renewed their Covenant. This was, however, but 
the glow of an Indian Summer; they soon returned to 
their idols. Then the Babylonish Army laid siege to 
Jerusalem, which, being reduced to the last extremity 
by famine and pestilence, capitulated “on the ninth day 
of the seventh month” of that memorable year. The 
people had renounced God, preferring an alliance with 
Egypt which proved but a broken reed that pierced 
through their hand. 

The fourth and final rejection of the Covenant was 


Wayfarers of the Bible 181 


30 A.D. The Seed of woman had appeared in the full- 
ness of time. The Angel of the Covenant had come 
unto his own “and his own received him not.” Was 
there ever such fatuity, since the beginning of history? 
The Jews had been looking for their Messiah for a 
thousand years; and when he appeared they led him 
away to Calvary, crying, “Crucify him!’ On the 
titulum above his head was a significant inscription, 
“This is the king of the Jews.” 

They formulated their own doom: saying, “His 
blood be on us and on our children.” God has taken 
them at their word. For two thousand years they 
have been wanderers upon the face of the earth; a 
nation without a country, a people without a king. 
They have gone about like their fathers “entangled in 
the wilderness,” of whom it was written, “They could 
not enter in because of unbelief.” Their king is rid- 
ing triumphantly among the nations; but they refuse 
to believe in him. Their rejection of Christ is the 
proverb of two millenniums. They persist in saying, 
“We will not have him to rule over us!” 

In this connection we note four miracles which must 
be forever unaccountable to those who rule God out of 
history; and they are miracles which cannot be ig- 
nored by thoughtful men. 

The first is the Jew himself. 

There are those who say they do not believe in 
miracles. Frederick the Great was one, yet he ad- 
mitted, “If I must needs lay my hands upon a miracle, 
it is the Wandering Jew.” Up and down through the 
earth he goes, with no rest to the sole of his feet; of 
splendid birth, of undisputed intellectual power, hold- 


182 Wayfarers of the Bible 


ing the purse-strings of the world, wielding a vast in- 
fluence in international affairs, yet a kingless man. 
The standing reproach of the scattered people is that 
they have renounced their Covenant. Nevertheless, 
by the very terms of that Covenant, they have been 
kept as a separated and peculiar people until now. 
The Gulf Stream, rising in the South Atlantic, courses 
northward until it enters the Arctic Ocean, flowing as 
a distinct current between banks of cold water, with a 
volume a thousand times larger than the Amazon, 
bearing the genial influence of the Tropics to temper 
the climate of western Europe; so that Ireland, though 
in the same latitude as bleak Labrador, is a garden of 
beauty. So have the Jews remained distinct among 
the nations, true to their monotheistic traditions, and, 
so far forth, a blessing to the earth, yet persistently 
recreant to their Covenant and false to their King. 
Call your scientists, your biologists, and ethnologists, 
and let them explain this phenomenon if they can. 

The second miracle is the Fulfillment of Prophecy 
with reference to this people. 

Letter by letter and line by line the things that were 
predicted of them have proven true. For example, 
Noah said, “Japheth shall dwell in the tents of Shem.” 
Have not the Gentiles inherited the Covenant of the 
Jews? Has not the birthright of the disinherited son 
fallen to us? They still repeat their ancient boast, 
“We have Abraham as our Father”; but their Messiah 
is our Christ. Salvation is of the Jews; but thus far 
the Gentiles alone have accepted it. All assaults upon 
the accuracy of many prophecies like this have been 
utterly futile. The unbiased critics of Holy Scripture 


Wayfarers of the Bible 183 


are constrained with one accord to bow down before 
this vindication of truth. 

The third miracle is the Divine Patience. 

A thousand years God bore with his stiff-necked 
people before he cast them off. He renewed his Cove- 
nant with them again and again. “He sent his mes- 
sengers, rising up betimes, and sending because he 
had compassion on his people and on his dwelling- 
place; but they mocked his messengers and despised 
his words and misused his prophets, until the wrath 
of the Lord arose against his people, because there 
was no remedy.” You will search in vain for a more 
pathetic appeal than that of Isaiah at the most critical 
period of Jewish history : “Hear, O heavens; and give 
ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken; I have nour- 
ished and brought up children, and they have rebelled 
against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass 
his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my peo- 
ple doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people 
laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers! They have for- 
saken the Lord. From the sole of the foot, even unto 
the head there is no soundness ; but wounds and bruises 
and putrefying sores. And the daughter of Zion is left 
as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of 
cucumbers, as a besieged city. Come, now, and let us 
reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be 
as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be 
red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be will- 
ing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; but 
if ye refuse, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for 
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” 

And the fourth miracle is the Covenant itself. 


184 Wayfarers of the Bible 


For, however that Covenant has been slighted and 
repudiated and broken on the part of sinful men, it has 
been kept always and absolutely on the part of God; 
as it is written, “Let God be true, but every man a 
liar.” And the Covenant still holds with reference to 
the Jews. There is one prophecy which remains to be 
fulfilled, to wit, the prophecy of their restoration. The 
hope of “Zionism” is merely a dream. The scattered 
Jews will probably never return to Palestine; but they 
will find a truer restoration in an acknowledgment of 
Jesus as their Messiah. The time will come when the 
truth will dawn upon them like a sunrise; and they 
will return to him as doves flocking to their windows. 
They will acknowledge the truth of the Covenant, and 
the Seed of woman shall reign over them. This is one 
of the appointed signs of the coming of Christ. On that 
memorable day, when, sitting over against Jerusalem, 
he wept over its impending fate, he cried, “O Jerusa- 
lem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them 
which are sent unto thee, how often would I have 
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gather- 
eth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 
And now, behold! your house is left unto you deso- 
late. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me hence- 
forth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the 
name of the Lord!” 

The lesson for us is one of obligation to the scat- 
tered Jews. Let us who dwell in the tents of Shem 
pray for the peace of Jerusalem. “Peace be within 
thy gates and prosperity within thy palaces.” I was 
once greatly perplexed by a service which I attended 
in the great synagogue at Rotterdam. The place was 


Wayfarers of the Bible 185 


thronged with worshipers. The lights were un- 
kindled, except the candles on the altar, which just 
made the darkness visible. The high priest chanted 
the service in a melancholy voice. I felt as if ina 
mummy crypt. What could this mean? All at once 
the character of the service changed. The lights in 
the great chandeliers were kindled. The worshipers 
produced tapers, lighted them, and waved them aloft. 
The priest had risen and was reciting in a gladsome 
voice, the men responding “Hosanna! Hosanna!” I 
learned afterward, on inquiry, that this service was 
commemorative of the overthrow of Jerusalem; and 
the kindling of the lights meant that Messiah was to 
come. 

O, when will the hoodwink be taken from Israel’s 
eyes? When will they see that Jesus is the Christ? 
When will they cry before him, “Blessed is he that 
cometh in the name of the Lord”? We rejoice to 
sing: 

“Al] hail the power of Jesus’ name! 
Let angels prostrate fall; 


Bring forth the royal diadem, 
And crown him Lord of all.” 


But, remembering the dreary exile of this people and 
the blindness of their eyes, let us pray for the hasten- 
ing of the time when their long-rejected Christ shall 
gather them as a hen doth gather her brood under her 
wings. 
“Ve seed of Israel’s chosen race, 
Ye ransomed from the fall, 


Hail him who saves you by his grace 
And crown him Lord of all!” 


JOURNEY XIX 


IN WHICH ESTHER MAKES A LONG JOURNEY ON A 
FATEFUL ERRAND 


THE Book of Esther is a tragedy. The Dramatis 
Persone pass before us. 

Ahasuerus, King of Persia; better known to us as 
Xerxes the Great; cruel, capricious, magnificent; his 
word was irreversible law; it was he who lashed the 
sea because it would not obey him. 

Esther, his beautiful queen; a Jewess, who had con- 
cealed her lineage to avoid the finger of scorn; ele- 
vated to the throne by a strange providence; her 
beauty radiant as the star that sparkled in her name. 

Haman, prime minister and court favorite; villain 
of the play; puffed up with a little brief authority; 
filled with anger because of the refusal of an aged 
Jew to do him obeisance; persuading the king to pro- 
nounce the death-sentence on all Jews within his 
realm. 

Mordecai, foster-father of Esther; author of the 
trouble which threatened his people; an old hero who 
would not “crook the pregnant hinges of the knee 
where thrift might follow fawning.” 

The Drama is in four Scenes, all located in Shu- 
shan, the capital of Persia. 

Scene First: On the house-tops of the Jewish homes, 
Men and women are kneeling with uplifted eyes and 

186 


Wayfarers of the Bible 187 


hands pressed together. They have learned their 
doom, and are praying to their God. The blast of a 
trumpet; the beating of horses’ hoofs beyond the city 
gates ; heralds are riding forth with the death-sentence. 
By the Assyrian mountains, by the southern plain, 
by the Parthian Sea, all Jews must die! 

Scene Second: The open square beneath the Queen’s 
window. Mordecai leans on his ivory staff uttering a 
low, wailing cry. He succeeds at length in attracting 
the Queen’s attention. She appears at her lattice. He 
tells the sorrowful story of which she, in her retire- 
ment, has been kept in ignorance, and entreats her 
to go in unto the king in behalf of her people. In 
vain does she protest: “The king is at his revels; to 
approach him uninvited is death under the Persian 
law.” Mordecai persists: “It matters not; the fate 
of Israel depends upon thee; and who knows whether 
thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as 
this?” She pleads, resists, and yields: “Gather to- 
gether the Jews in Shushan and fast for me; I will go 
in unto the king; and if I perish, I perish!” 

Scene Third: The Queen’s apartments. Three days 
she has been fasting and pleading with God. The 
hour is come! If ever beauty had a mission it is now. 
“Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain’’; but the beauty 
and favor of Esther are consecrated to God: there- 
fore, may he multiply them a hundredfold this day! 
She stands in her doorway and looks across the great 
quadrangle to the banquet hall. It is, perhaps, a hun- 
dred yards distant. Nay, miles on miles! For she 
goes with her life in her hand. A long, long journey 
is before her. Many an adventurer has crossed moun- 


188 Wayfarers of the Bible 


tains and deserts and found them less difficult than 
this. She has made her resolve: “In behalf of my 
people I will go!” 

Scene Fourth: The banquet hall. The king and his 
courtiers have been feasting many days. There are 
sounds of music and laughter, and the clinking of 
golden cups. The doors are defended by stolid 
Nubian guards. Who comes yonder along the marble 
walk? They start in amazement and whisper to one 
another, “It is the Queen!” As she draws near, ar- 
rayed in her royal apparel, they stand aside to let her 
pass. At the threshold she pauses; her lips move in 
prayer: “God of my fathers, hear me! Incline the 
king’s heart toward me and let me prevail in behalf 
of my people. God of my fathers, be with me!” She 
has crossed the threshold. She stands in the banquet 
hall. The red-eyed revelers cease their laughter. 
The king has risen from his seat, half sobered by the 
vision of beauty. Pale but resolute, she faces him. 
A mighty moment that! The destiny of a nation is 
trembling in the balance. Her beauty, her calm de- 
meanor, her magnificent courage have quenched the 
anger blazing in her husband’s eyes. He lifts the 
scepter and extends it. “What wilt thou, Queen 
Esther? It shall be done unto thee, even to the half 
of my kingdom.” The crisis is past. The prayer of 
the beautiful Queen is heard. Israel is saved! 

And what does this signify to us? THE POWER OF 
INTERCESSORY PRAYER. Observe the bended form of 
the suppliant Queen. Here is the noblest attitude of 
human nature; to bow in behalf of others at the throne 
of the heavenly grace. 


Wayfarers of the Bible 189 


But will God hearken? Will he who sits upon the 
circle of the universe, administering the laws by which 
the worlds revolve in their orbits, turn aside from his 
great enterprises to hear the prayer of a child who is 
just now kneeling at its bedside, saying, “Now I lay 
me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep”? 
If the laws of the Medes and Persians were swerved 
from their course by the supplication of Esther, shall 
not our Father in heaven much more hear the cry of 
the least of his little ones? 


“There is an eye that never sleeps 
Beneath the wing of night; 
There is an ear that never shuts 
When sink the beams of light. 


“There is an arm that never tires 
When human strength gives way; 
There is a love that never fails 
When human loves decay. 


“That eye is fixed on seraph throngs, 
That arm upholds the sky, 

That ear is filled with angels’ songs, 
That love is throned on high. 


“But there’s a power which man can wield 
When human strength is vain, 

That eye, that arm, that love to reach, 
That listening ear to gain. 


“That power is prayer, which soars on high 
To Jesus on his throne, 

And moves the hand that moves the world, 
To bring salvation down.” 


The first duty of a man, logically and chronologi- 
cally, is to make his own calling and election sure. 


190 Wayfarers of the Bible 


He cannot look after the spiritual welfare of others 
until he has attended to this. Let him, therefore, 
come like the publican, beating on his breast and ery- 
ing, “God be merciful to me!” Let him come to the 
Cross and to the fountain filled with blood; and, by 
the truth of a hundred great and precious promises, 
the Lord will say, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” 

But if this were all, religion would, indeed, be a 
selfish thing. Where is the captain of The Algona? 
Ten years ago his ship went down with all her crew 
and passengers ; and he swam ashore. It is little won- 
der that he fled and has kept himself in hiding to this 
day. Alas, for the Christian who thinks only of him- 
self! Let us spend and be spent for others, and pray 
without ceasing for those about us. 

It stands to reason that, if God is willing to hear 
a man’s prayer for himself, he will much more hear 
him when he pleads unselfishly. Paul was never so 
great as when he cried, “I could wish myself accursed 
from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according 
to the flesh!’ We stand reverently at the door of 
John Knox’s closet while he pleads, “O God, give me 
Scotland or I die!” Here is our coign of vantage. 
We can convert! A stupendous thought. “He that 
converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall 
save a soul from death and shall cover a multitude 
of sins.” Wives can save their husbands, parents can 
save their children, by the power of intercessory 
prayer. God hears and answers it. 

A legend says that the angel Sandalphon waits at 
the ramparts of heaven with his feet on a ladder of 
light. He is listening. The songs of the multitude 


Wayfarers of the Bible 191 


of adoring saints and angels come from above, but he 
heeds them not. The sounds of earth’s traffic and 
pleasure are borne from afar, but he heeds them not. 
He hearkens for the mother’s cry on behalf of her son, 
for the sob of a burdened heart that pleads for the lost 
and wandering; and he bears these supplications aloft, 
laying them before the throne, where they turn to 
garlands at the feet of God. 

We are encouraged by great promises. The prayer 
of intercession falls within the circumscription of all 
God’s assurances. No limitations are put upon it; no 
conditions are affixed to it, except that it be offered in 
faith. “Ask, and it shall be given unto you;—for 
every one that asketh receiveth.” Why need the way- 
ward die? Why need the prodigal perish in his sins? 
God’s covenant is sure. His promises are Yea and 
Amen: “I will be a God to you and your children after 
you.” 

And the promises of Scripture are buttressed by 
the testimony of those who have tried and proved 
them. I knew a woman, about forty years ago, whose 
prayers went up night and day for an unbelieving 
husband and eight sons and daughters. One by one 
they were gathered in. She went to heaven ten years 
ago and met her Lord, saying, “Here am I and they 
whom thou hast given me.’ Great conquests of 
prayer! The father who stood at his gate, looking 
into the distance and waiting expectantly for the re- 
turn of his son, who had gone into the far country 
and was wasting his substance in riotous living, was 
not disappointed, did not wait in vain. The day came 
when he saw his son return, and “went out while he 


192 Wayfarers of the Bible 


was yet a great way off and fell upon his neck and 
kissed him.” 

We are led, furthermore, to believe in the power 
of intercessory prayer by the fact that Christ in his 
earthly ministry never turned a deaf ear to it. Did 
he refuse the request of Jairus, whose daughter was 
near to death; or that of the Syro-Phcenician woman, 
though his disciples entreated, “Send her away; she 
troubleth us’? Did he disregard the solicitous kind- 
ness of the four friends who carried the paralytic up 
the outer stairway and let him down through the roof 
into the midst? Nay, it is written: “When he saw 
their faith,” he healed his palsy and forgave his sin. 
Wherever he went the sick were brought out on 
couches and laid along the way; “and he healed them 
every one.” 

But the strongest argument for the efficacy of in- 
tercessory prayer is the fact that Christ “ever liveth 
to make intercession for us.” And his is an all- 
prevailing plea. The power of his intercession lies 
in the fact that he died for us. 


“Five bleeding wounds He bears, 
Received on Calvary; 

They pour effectual prayers, 
They strongly plead for me.” 


We need no Ave Maria. We have one and only one 
Mediator with God the Father, that is, Jesus Christ 
the righteous. And, however we may revere the 
Virgin Mother, inasmuch as we know that she bears 
no nail-prints in her hands we do not plead, “Holy 
Mary, mother of God, pray for us!” In all our sup- 


Wayfarers of the Bible 193 


plication for others we do remember this, that Christ 
prays for us. He is our Sandalphon, who lays our 
supplications before the throne of God. 

A word as to the Sequel of the Drama. The Jews 
were spared. Haman, the magnificent, swung from 
the gallows-tree. Mordecai was clothed with purple. 
The homes of Israel were filled with thanksgiving. 
The feast of Purim, then instituted, is kept among the 
scattered Jews to this day. In that feast we have a 
foregleam of the joy of heaven. The noblest pleas- 
ure of our life here is “the generous pleasure of kindly 
deeds,” and in heaven much more. The joy of heaven 
is “the joy of the Lord,” who rejoices with us be- 
cause “that which was lost is found.” 

I stand at heaven’s gate and see a man coming this 
way. He lived his life on earth with no thought of 
the hereafter; heard the Gospel, but would not heed 
it. The voice of singing is borne to him, “Worthy 
art thou to receive honor and glory and dominion and 
power, for thou hast redeemed us by thy blood!” The 
gates are open; will he enter? Nay; what is there 
in heaven for him? How can he mingle in the praises 
of a Saviour whom he never knew, or participate in 
such uncongenial joys? The gates are open; but he 
seeks the place for which his life and character have 
fitted him. 

I see another coming, alone. He sought his own 
salvation while he lived on earth and brings no tro- 
phies of benevolent service. O lonely, lonely man! 
Let him enter ; but the joy of heaven must be a meager 
joy for him. 

But here comes one who has rejoiced to spend and 


194 Wayfarers of the Bible 


be spent for his fellow men. He comes like a toiler 
from the harvest field whose arms are laden with 
sheaves. What a welcome awaits him! What greet- 
ings and handclaspings! Here are those who have 
entered before him, saved by his faithful toil and in- 
tercession. They stretch forth grateful hands to wel- 
come him. And, beholding this, we remember the 
saying that is written, “They that be wise shall shine 
as the brightness of the firmament; and they that 
turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and 
ever.” 


JOURNEY XX 


IN WHICH A HEATHEN KING IS STRANGELY LED 
TO RESTORE THE EXILES TO THEIR ANCESTRAL 
HOME 


Tue forty-fifth of Isaiah is one of the most wonder- 
ful chapters in that wonderful book. It refers with 
much particularity to Cyrus, son of Cambyses and 
nephew of Darius, prince, statesman, conqueror, 
founder of the Medo-Persian Empire. 

The most remarkable thing about the chapter is that 
it purports to have been written about 700 B.c.; that 
is, nearly two hundred years before Cyrus was born. 
“Impossible!” So say the destructive critics; which 
accounts for the invention of Deutero-Isaiah. “In the 
nature of the case,” they say, “it is impossible that a 
man should have foreknown an event two hundred 
years before it occurred; wherefore the alleged 
prophecy must have been written by somebody who 
lived after the event.’ Of course, this eliminates the 
supernatural from prophecy and leaves God out of the 
reckoning. But that presents no difficulty; for that 
is precisely what these sciolists wish to do. 

And what is the message? What does the Lord say 
to Cyrus? Briefly this, “I have called thee by name; 
I have surnamed thee; I have girded thee, though thou 
hast not known me.” 

195 


196 Wayfarers of the Bible 


Observe first, “I have called thee by name.” A 
most surprising circumstance. “It is,” says Kitto, “as 
if a Persian of the reign of Nadir Shah had foretold 
that a hundred years thence a queen named Victoria 
should reign in England; the name being to him en- 
tirely foreign and strange, and having significance 
only among a people whose existence was scarcely 
known, and whose language not a person in the coun- 
try understood.” 

Second, “I have surnamed thee”; that is, I have 
given thee designations of honor. He speaks of 
Cyrus as his “shepherd,” “his anointed,” as “the man 
that executeth my counsel,” and “the righteous man 
out of the East.” This portrayal of the character of 
Cyrus is verified by Xenophon and other historians, 
who speak of him as a model of princely honor and 
courage, a just and gentle man. 

Third, “I have girded thee, though thou knewest 
me not.” A girdle is for service. God never girds 
a man unless he has something for him to do. David 
knew that God had “girded him with strength”; and 
rejoiced in it; but here is a king who was divinely 
girded and was not aware of it. The prophecy in 
detail is as follows: 


“The Lorp saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, 
And shall perform all my pleasure ; 
Even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; 
And to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. 
Thus saith the Lorp to his anointed, to Cyrus, 
Whose right hand I have holden, 
To subdue nations before him; 
I will loose the loins of kings, 


Wayfarers of the Bible 197 


To open before him the two-leaved gates; 
And the gates shall not be shut; 

I will go before thee, 

And make the crooked places straight ; 

I will break in pieces the gates of brass, 

And cut in sunder the bars of iron; 

I will give thee the treasures of darkness, 
And the hidden riches of secret places; 

That thou mayest know that I, the Lorp, 
Which call thee by name, am the God of Israel. 
For Jacob my servant’s sake, 

And Israel mine elect, 

I have even called thee by name: 

I have surnamed thee, 

I have girded thee, though thou hast not known me.” 


For what had God thus girded him? In general 
terms, “to perform all his pleasure’; that is, to take 
part in that Programme of Events which is called His- 
tory, the consummation of which is the coronation of 
Christ. But, more specifically, the service for which 
Cyrus was girded was the liberation of the captive 
Jews. It had been predicted that the term of their 
exile would be seventy years. At the end of that time 
the clock struck, and the man appeared. A more im- 
probable thing was never known. The proclamation 
was issued by the man designated, at the moment indi- 
cated, and in the terms of prophecy. Here it is: 
“THUS SAITH Cyrus, KING oF PERSIA: ALL THE 
KINGDOMS OF THE EARTH HATH THE LorD, THE GoD 
oF HEAVEN, GIVEN UNTO ME; AND HE HATH CHARGED 
ME TO BUILD HIM AN HOUSE IN JERUSALEM OF JUDAH. 
WHO IS THERE AMONG YOU OF ALL HIS PEOPLE? THE 
Lorp His GoD BE WITH HIM, AND LET HIM GO UP” 
(2 Chron. 36:23). 


198 Wayfarers of the Bible 


The exiles returned 536 B.c. There were fifty 
thousand of them. They were led by Zerubbabel, the 
son of Shealtiel, a prince of Judah. With him were 
the flower of the captive people, priests, Levites, and 
others “whom the spirit of God had moved to go.” 
It was not strange that the majority preferred to 
remain in Babylon; two generations had passed since 
their fathers had been led into captivity, and they were 
slow to undertake the hardships involved in return- 
ing. All who did return were volunteers, animated 
by a great purpose, namely, to rebuild the house of 
God. They were abundantly provided for the jour- 
ney. Cyrus had furnished them with eight thousand 
camels and presented them with the golden vessels of 
the sanctuary which had been carried away by Nebu- 
chadnezzar. They were four months on the way; 
and they lightened their weariness with song: “When 
the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were 
like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled 
with laughter, and our tongue with singing” (Ps. 
126.) The tribes of the desert wondered as they 
saw them pass. They had heard their fathers tell 
how, almost a century before, bands of captives had 
been carried toward the East in chains, weeping. 
Could these be the children of those bondmen, 
these who journeyed with glad step, and, from 
their bivouacs, awoke with gladness the echoes of 
the distant hills? “Then said they among the 
heathen, The Lorp hath done great things for 
them.” To which the pilgrims replied, “Yea, the 
Lorp hath done great things for us; whereof we are 
glad.” 


Wayfarers of the Bible 199 


So did they lend themselves to the accomplishment 
of God’s purpose; and among them was the shadowy 
figure of Cyrus, who made this possible, and was him- 
self being used as an instrument to prove that Jehovah 
alone is God. 

On reaching their destination they at once began to 
rebuild the Temple. It was in Ziph, “the blossom 
month.” The work continued for some years in the 
face of many discouragements and vexatious opposi- 
tion of surrounding tribes. Then the enthusiasm of 
the builders oozed out.. They longed to return to 
agricultural pursuits. The fields lay fallow in their 
sight. One by one they laid down the hammer and 
trowel and went forth to husbandry. The sanctuary 
was deserted; its bare walls were open to the sky; 
the winds from the heights of Moab swept through 
the unlinteled doors ; owls made their nests in its nooks 
and crannies; foxes from the ravines of Hinnom crept 
in and out of the holy place; the outer precincts were 
filled with heaps of lumber and uncut stone. 

At this juncture came the prophet Zechariah. He 
passed through the villages and among the farms ex- 
horting the men to return to their appointed tasks. 
He strove to rekindle their ardor by reciting a series 
of glowing visions through which walked, in divine 
majesty, their Messianic King. The climax of his 
exhortations was reached in the words: “Rejoice 
greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of 
Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee! He 
is just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an 
ass; and his domininon shall be from sea to sea and 
from the river unto the ends of the earth!” 


200 Wayfarers of the Bible 


Now link that event with the triumphal entry of 
Jesus, which occurred a.p. 30. At that time the re- 
ligion of the chosen people was much like the unfin- . 
ished temple, and their government had been trodden 
down by alien feet. Jesus set out upon his last fate- 
ful journey to Jerusalem. His disciples were with 
him, and they were joined by other pilgrims on their 
way to the annual feast. Not far from the village of 
Bethphage he paused to rest, and sent two of his dis- 
ciples for a beast of burden. In the meantime it was 
known in Jerusalem that Jesus was drawing near. 
The story of his preaching and miracles was on every 
lip. The people who were encamped in leafy booths 
on the hill-slopes about the city, saw the caravan ap- 
proaching. Hearing the shouting and commotion, 
they hurried along the road, tearing off branches of 
the palm trees. So the two companies met, those go- 
ing before joining with those who followed after in 
the cry, “Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David!” 
Waving the palm branches and casting their garments 
in the road, they escorted him over the ford of the 
Kedron and on through the city gates. The people 
on the roofs and in the doorways saw the procession 
passing; traders, camel-drivers, rabbis in robes em- 
broidered in gold, all gazing with interest. “Who is 
this?” “It is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the 
Jews!” On toward the Temple moved the strange 
procession, still crying, “Hosanna, blessed is he that 
cometh in the name of the Lord!” 

And again we note the shadowy figure of the di- 
vinely girded Cyrus, filling his place in the mighty 
plan. 


Wayfarers of the Bible 201 


This is history; Christ in the center, with the 
worthies of the Old Economy “going before,’ and 
those of the Christian church “coming after,” uniting 
to welcome him. 

If you would know the reason of this event, so 
singularly in contrast with other episodes in the hum- 
ble and unostentatious life of Jesus, ask the evange- 
lists; and observe how they unite in saying, “All this 
was done that the Scriptures might be fulfilled; as it 
is written, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; for, 
behold, thy king cometh unto thee!” 

Now link that incident with another which is still 
behind the veil. You will find it in the prophecies 
of the Apocalypse. John the dreamer saw the vision 
of The End, “the restitution of all things.’ The 
heavens were rolled up like a scroll and the stars were 
falling as when a fig-tree is shaken of its untimely 
figs. The hour is at hand! Angels and archangels 
have come forth to join with saints triumphant. The 
vast expanse is thronged with them. Armies! Armies! 
Armies, far as the eye can reach! Palms in their 
hands; shouts of victory. A trumpet sounds, a great 
angel proclaims that Time is no longer. Then the 
gates of heaven are rolled back and the king appears, 
robed in light and glory. He lifts his hands in bene- 
diction—intercessory hands, marked with the scars of 
his mediatorial pain,—while the heavens are ringing 
with the shout, “Hosanna, to the Son of David! 
Worthy art thou to receive honor and glory and do- 
minion and power for ever and ever!” This is the 
consummation of events. The tabernacle of God is 
among men. Close the book and seal it. History is 


202 Wayfarers of the Bible 


written. Jesus is crowned. His dominion is from 
sea to sea and his kingdom from the river unto the 
ends of the earth. 

And again, we mark the shadowy form of Cyrus. 
Is he now a captive in chains, dragged at the Victor’s 
chariot wheels; or is he among those who wave the 
palm branches, putting to an eternal shame such as 
have lived in the clearer light and yet refuse to be- 
lieve ? 

What are the inductions from this array of pro- 
phetic and historic facts? First, Jehovah alone is 
God. 

This is the truth announced to Cyrus in his gird- 
ing: “I am the Lord and there is none else; there is 
no God beside me.” All history bears witness to 
it. The calves of Egypt, Baal and Ashtoreth, Zeus 
and Molech, the gods of the Pantheon, where are 
they? Have they not fallen on their faces before 
him? The “Battle of the Gods” is over long ago, and 
thoughtful men everywhere are crying, “The Lorp, he 
is God!” 

Second, As God is one, so also is his Word. 

There are no other “sacred books.” We are told 
that the Bible is mere “literature.” It is literature shot 
through and through with the life of God. It is dif- 
ferentiated from all other books as man is set apart 
from the lower orders, by the fact that God has 
breathed into it. This is inspiration; theo-pneustia. 
The Bible is not a lifeless book but a living organ- 
ism. It is not a collection of truths and precepts like 
the Analects of Confucius, but a procession of truths 
keeping time to the Gospel, and marching on to the 


Wayfarers of the Bible 203 


reign of Immanuel. “Search it,” said Jesus, “for it 
testifies of me.” 

Third, God’s purpose, also, is one. 

It is set forth in the decree, “Thou art my Son, this 
day have I begotten thee ; ask of me, and I will give thee 
the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost 
parts of the earth for thy possession” (Ps. 2:8). It is 
plain to be seen in the chronicles of the past that God 
has never swerved an hair’s breadth from his purpose 
to enthrone his Only-begotten Son. A good deal has 
been written pro and contra about the religion of 
Tennyson; but surely he struck the major note when 
he sang: 


? 
“T doubt not through the ages one eternal purpose runs; 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the 
suns.” 


Fourth, The plan in which that purpose is formu- 
lated is also one. 

Its formulation is history, which we cannot read 
with understanding, except as we see this golden 
thread of continuity. History is not a mere record of 
events and happenings tied up by Time the Chronicler, 
like a bundle of fagots; but rather a living tree. It is 
set forth thus in the Parable of the Mustard Seed; 
“which, indeed, is the least of all seeds; but when it 
groweth, it becometh a tree, so that the fowls of the 
air lodge in the branches of it.” It has its roots in 
the divine purpose and its life in providence: One 
event grows out of another as boughs from the trunk, 
and twigs from the bough, and blossoms from the 
twig, and fruit from the blossom. 


204 Wayfarers of the Bible 


If this be so, there is no chance. We cannot say, 
It happened that Zachariah had a vision, or, It hap- 
pened that Cyrus issued a proclamation, or, It hap- 
pened that Jesus came riding into the Holy City. 
Nothing happens. As William the Conqueror landed 
from his little boat on the shore of Britain, he slipped 
and fell. There was a loud cry from his followers, 
who knew that this was the worst of ill omens. He 
recovered himself, however, and said, “See, my lords; 
by the grace of Heaven I take possession of England 
with both hands!” He thus turned the accident to a 
good purpose; but God knows no accident, he intends 
all. The vision may wait, but all must be fulfilled; 
“for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” 

And there is no confusion. We hear the hum of 
traffic, the sounds of battle, the voices of laughter or 
weeping; and they have no apparent correlation. The 
builders on the walls are troubled, saying, “Cyrus is 
dead, and Darius knoweth us not; Tyre and Sidon are 
breathing out slaughter against us, and the Philistines 
are rattling their chariots yonder on the maritime 
plain!” But God says to his prophet, “Speak unto my 
people. All hearts are in my hands as the rivers of 
water. And, behold, your king cometh unto you!’ If 
our eyes were open we should see the mountains full of 
God’s horses and chariots. If we could take our posi- 
tion beside his throne, we should see that all things 
are conspiring toward the “one supreme divine event.” 
Make way for the King! 

“The eternal step of progress beats 


To that great anthem, calm and slow, 
Which God repeats.” 


Wayfarers of the Bible 205 


‘And there is no haste. The lifetime of God is from 
everlasting to everlasting; with him a thousand years 
are as one day. Haste is the infirmity of mortal men; 
of merchants whose obligations fall due to-morrow; 
of lawyers whose briefs must be ready for the assem- 
bling of court; of preachers who must be in their 
pulpits at the ringing of the bell. But God never 
hurries to meet his appointments. The world is under 
condemnation and saints are crying, “How long, O 
Lord, how long?” and still he awaits the fullness of 
time. Time is not a reaper with sickle in hand; but 
a weaver at the loom, casting his shuttle to and fro, 
each cast of the shuttle a year or a century; and when, 
at length, he cuts the thread, behold, the fabric 
will be complete and the King shall array himself 
in it. 

It remains to speak of the personal factor. Cyrus, 
Zerubbabel, Zechariah, each is girded for his place. 
If eighty men of threescore years and ten, succeeding 
one another, were placed in line, they would cover all 
history back to Adam. But each must stand in his 
allotted place; that is, in right relation to those “going 
before” and “coming after,’ and, above all, in right 
relation to him who stands at the center of all. 

I am a part of God’s plan; so are you. A man in 
Bethphage tethered an ass before his door; two men 
came and led it away; a fourth held it while Jesus 
mounted; then one cried, ‘Hosanna!’ and others 
joined in. All these are nameless; but each fulfilled 
his part. The world knows who it was that cast his 
cloak at the crossing for Queen Elizabeth to tread on; 
but who knows the names of those who threw their 


206 Wayfarers of the Bible 


garments in the way before the Son of David? No 
matter : God remembers. 

It is for us to stand in our places, girt about the 
loins and attending to our work. The glory of life 
is in being “laborers together with God.” He hath 
girded thee, O man, whether or no thou knowest it. 
He hath named thee; he hath surnamed thee; he hath 
girded thee! 


JOURNEY XXI 


IN WHICH THE READER IS ASKED TO WALK THROUGH 
THE ANCIENT CITY OF ROME ON A DARK NIGHT 


Tue fall of Jerusalem was followed by a night of 
four centuries in which there was “no more open 
vision.” The lights of the golden candlestick were 
extinguished. A voice was heard from Edom, call- 
ing, “Watchman, what of the night?” and the watch- 
man answered, “The morning cometh and the night 
also!” It was a long, silent night, relieved only by 
the sound of the shuffling feet of those who stumbled 
in the dark. Life was like the dream of a delirious 
patient who tosses and cries, “Would God it were 
morning!’ A night of four hundred years! The 
darkness was such as could be felt! And it was hope- 
less, save for that word of the prophet: “The Sun of 
Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings!” 

So came the darkest hour, the hour before the dawn. 
The old priest Zacharias, who with his wife Elizabeth 
had been living on in the hope of Messiah, received a 
message and burst into song: “Blessed be the Lord 
God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his 
people! The dayspring from on high hath visited us, 
to give light to them that sit in darkness and the 
shadow of death!” 

So did Christ come at length to illuminate the world 
and gladden the hearts of the children of men. Be- 

207 


208 Wayfarers of the Bible 


hold, what hath God wrought! We are living in the 
twentieth century of the Christian Era. The contrast 
is our argument. The sunless world of Malachi is 
rejoicing in the glory of the noon-day. This is the 
Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. 

Our appeal is to thoughtful men, to such as can 
look on two pictures and draw a conclusion. They 
are asked to visit the world before Christ and compare 
it with the world we are living in. And if we observe 
a notable transformation, it will devolve upon us in 
sound reason to account for it. 

Let us, to begin with, go to the Capitol at Rome; 
for this was the center of the civilized world of those 
days. The standard of the Golden Eagle is floating 
over it. What does that mean? That all nations 
have been subjugated. It is a time of profound peace. 
They will tell you that the gates of the Temple of 
Janus are closed. But it is the peace of stagnation 
and despair. The known world, a narrow strip of 
land around the Mediterranean, with some provinces 
beyond, has been brought into abject submission to 
the nondescript beast in Daniel’s vision, the beast with 
iron teeth, “devouring and breaking in pieces.” The 
Golden Milestone is now the world’s center. The 
Orontes has at length flowed into the Tiber; and “all 
roads lead to Rome.” 

Let us next visit the Pantheon; where we shall ob- 
serve the religious condition of the world. Here are 
multitudinous gods; gods of the fields and forest, of 
the mountain and plain. They have eyes but they see 
not; ears have they but they hear not. It is all one to 
them whether there be light or darkness. How can 


Wayfarers of the Bible 209 


they relieve the sufferings of humanity, when they 
themselves are but larger men and women projected 
on the skies? And the people have found them out! 
The gods have been put to shame by their own im- 
potence. Plutarch says that the crew of a vessel off 
the harbor of Palotes heard the sound of vanishing 
footsteps and a distant cry, “Great Pan is dead!’ Mil- 
ton, in his “Hymn on the Nativity,” draws a picture of 
the flight of the gods: 


“The oracles are dumb, 
No voice or hideous hum 
Runs through the archéd roof in words deceiving. 
Apollo from his shrine 
Can no more divine, 
With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. 
No nightly trance, or breathéd spell 
Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. 


“The lonely mountains o’er, 
And the resounding shore, 
A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; 
From haunted spring and dale 
Edgéd with poplar pale, 
The parting genius is with sighing sent; 
With flower-inwoven tresses torn, 
The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. 


“Tn consecrated earth, 
And on the holy hearth, 
The Lares and Lemures moan with midnight plaint; 
In urns and altars round, 
A drear and dying sound 
Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint; 
And the chill marble seems to sweat, 
While each peculiar Power foregoes his wonted seat.” 


Perhaps the people, thus abandoning the pagan 
shrines, may find relief in philosophy? Let us visit 


210 Wayfarers of the Bible 


the schools by the Ilyssus and see. Here Zeno walks 
with his disciples in the Painted Porch, teaching the 
irresistibleness of fate, “What is to be, must be.” 
Here Plato, in his Academy, teaches truth with a per- 
adventure, and virtue with a mark of interrogation. 
Here Epicurus, in his Garden, teaches that expediency 
is the test of action: “We are governed by chance; 
pleasure is the highest good; death ends all.” Here 
Pyrrho, the father of agnosticism, glorifies doubt, say- 
ing, “We affirm nothing; no, not even that we affirm 
nothing.” Sum them all up and you have the philoso- 
phy of despair. It finds its supreme expression in the 
lifted brows and curled lip of Pilate as he contemptu- 
ously asks, “What is truth?” 

In the meantime, what is the condition of the peo- 
ple? Let us visit the Forum, which is the center of 
social life. Here are three classes: Patricians, Ple- 
beians, and Slaves. Of the Patricians there are ten 
thousand in Rome; all wealth, culture, and power are 
concentrated in their hands. The Plebeians are idlers, 
housed in tenements at the public cost. They hate 
work and love pleasure; their cry is, “Bread and 
Games!” The great body of the population are 
Slaves, owing to the custom of reducing subjugated 
peoples to bondage. There are sixty millions of these 
in the Empire. They live in ergastula like beasts of 
burden, herded in stalls. Cato likens them to “cattle 
among the straw.” All labor is performed by them, 
and without wages; for the wage-system awaits the 
word of One who shall say with authority, “The 
laborer is worthy of his hire.” 

To the Palace next, where we shall observe the lux- 


Wayfarers of the Bible 211 


ury of the time. Augustus is on the throne, and is 
worshiped as a god. He is surrounded by courtiers 
who live in unspeakable extravagance. Pliny says 
that the betrothal robe of Lollia cost forty millions of 
sesterces! These aristocrats have apparently no 
thought above the sordid pleasures of life. Matthew 
Arnold draws this picture: 


“On that hard pagan world disgust 
And sated loathing fell. 
Deep weariness and sated lust 
Made human life a hell. 
In his cool hall, with haggard eyes, 
The noble Roman lay; 
Or drove abroad in furious guise 
Along the Appian Way. 
He made a feast, drank fierce and fast 
And crowned his head with flowers; 
No easier nor no quicker passed 
The impracticable hours.” 


And thence to the Colosseum. Here are seats for a 
hundred thousand people. In yonder golden pavilion 
sit the Emperor and his knights. The lower galleries 
are set apart for patricians and their households; then 
the Vestal Virgins; higher up on the stone seats come 
the Plebeians; and, last of all, freedmen and slaves. 
At the sound of the trumpet a troop of gladiators file 
in and salute the Emperor: Morituri te salutamus! 
They fight with one another and with the wild beasts. 
The sand of the arena is stained with blood. The 
dead are dragged out. The wounded appeal for 
mercy ; but there is no mercy in the heart of the popu- 
lace. To die, indeed, is better than to live; for life, 


212 Wayfarers of the Bible 


except for the favored few, is not worth living in these 
days. 

But if any survive the cruel ordeal of the Colosseum, 
where shall they be taken? To the hospitals? There 
is not one hospital in the Empire! “The world before 
Christ,” says Uhlhorn, “was a world without love.” 
The fate of helpless age and unbefriended childhood 
is to be exposed to death. The one altar to Pity, at 
the crossing of the ways, merely emphasizes the preva- 
lent inhumanity. Lepers are thrust out beyond the 
gates to shift for themselves. Blind beggars sit at 
the entrance of the temples. The best that can befall 
the sick is to be laid in the porches of some Bethesda 
to wait for the moving of the waters, and mayhap 
to mourn that “there is no one to thrust them in”! 

It remains only to visit the Necropolis, the City of 
the Dead. Here are many gravestones inscribed with 
the word “Dormit”; but this is the sleep that knows 
no awaking. “Death ends all.” Cicero goes to the 
tomb of his daughter, Tullia, and, kindling a lamp, 
mourns, “O my daughter! Is this the quenching of 
thy life?” Socrates drinks his cup of hemlock, say- 
ing, “Whether to live again—I know not.” Read on 
this tombstone, dedicated “To the Eternal Sleep,” 
these words: 


“T was not and I became, 
I was and am no more; 
So much is true, all else is false. 
Traveler, drink, play, come!” 


The night is at hand; an unbroken night. The world 


is a world without God and without hope. 
And yet this was the ancient “Golden Age.” Art, 


Wayfarers of the Bible 213 


science, philosophy, had done their best, with this re- 
sult. There was no clear vision of truth, no sound 
basis of character, no just conception of the rights of 
man, no social or industrial order, no prevalent charity, 
no real happiness, no thought of salvation from the 
shame and bondage of sin. The people were ‘“walk- 
ing in darkness.” There was one star only glimmer- 
ing in the sky; it was the hope of the coming of One 
who should reveal God. 

Then came the daybreak; heralded by the song of 
the angels: “Glory to God in the highest, peace on 
earth, good will to men!” And the old priest sang 
in the temple, “The Dayspring from on high hath 
visited us!” 

Now nineteen centuries have passed. Light, radiat- 
ing from the face of Christ, has overspread the earth. 
The Capitol, the Pantheon, the schools of philosophy, 
the Forum, the Colosseum, the Necropolis, where are 
they? The little strip of country around the Medi- 
terranean has widened in concentric circles until al- 
most all the nations of the earth are embraced within 
it. Almost all! There are four hundred millions of 
living people who sing, “All hail the power of Jesus’ 
name!” The nations that sat in darkness have seen a 
great light. Is it the same world? The transforma- 
tion is more wonderful than any that Ovid ever 
dreamed of. 

To what shall we attribute the marvelous change? 
There are those who would say, Evolution; yet any 
tyro knows that even “the fittest”? must be nursed and 
coddled, else it will “revert to its type.” There are 
boundless possibilities of “evolution” in the world if 


214 Wayfarers of the Bible 


only there is an Evolver in charge; but unless some 
Burbank looks after his plant it will surely “go to 
seed.” 

Shall we say, then, that the change has been brought 
about by civilization? True; but civilization does not 
work automatically. “Law always suggests a law- 
giver.” A self-perpetuating force, with no engineer 
at the throttle, is the absurd dream of “perpetual mo- 
tion.” Every clock in the universe is bound to stop 
sooner or later unless there is somebody to wind it up. 

The question is how to account for the fact that 
Civilization and Christendom are now synonymous 
terms. Is it a mere coincidence? O unbeliever, great 
is thy faith! It is far more difficult to believe that 
the hand-to-hand fellowship of Progress and Chris- 
tianity is a mere coincidence than it is to believe that 
the banns are divinely pronounced. The logic that 
attributes the world’s advancement to the power of the 
Gospel is as irrefutable as that which views a sunlit 
landscape and says, “The sun hath done it.” 

But Utopia is not yet. There are wars and rumors 
of wars. Sin and sorrow, vice and tribulation cut 
a wide swath among the children of men. But the 
world grows better every day. And the thing which 
has been shall be. It is too late to attempt to arrest 
the light of the sun. The progress already made is 
our assurance that in fullness of time “the Tabernacle 
of God shall be among men, and he will dwell with 
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself 
shall be their God.” 

The darkest spot still lingering on the earth, where 
is it? Not in mid-China or Ethiopia. It is the heart 


Wayfarers of the Bible 206 


that withholds its meed of gratitude from the Christ 
who has not only opened the gates of heaven to all 
believers, but has, by the benignant influence of his 
Gospel, made this world so good a world to live in. 
We think of the Incarnation as a great mystery; but 
a greater is this, that any man or woman at this 
period of the world’s progress should refuse to believe 
in Christ and welcome the Light of the Sun. 


JOURNEY XXII 


IN WHICH THE THREE KINGS FOLLOW THE STAR OF 
BETHLEHEM ; AND THE DAY BREAKS 


THE king of Judea was troubled. It was rumored 
that at this time a prince was to be born, in fulfillment 
of prophecy, who would assume the Jewish throne. 
Tacitus declares that the opinion was prevalent in the 
East that the Messiah of Israel was about to appear. 
Virgil had written his Fourth Eclogue, in which he 
announced the near approach of the Golden Age. A 
feeling of expectancy was prevalent everywhere. 

Herod was an old man, but still tenacious of his ill- 
gotten power. He was an apostate Jew, who long ago 
had forsaken the religion of his fathers to enter the 
service of the Roman government. His career had 
been a brilliant one; a protégé of Antony, he had, at 
a very early age, been made governor of Galilee and 
afterward tetrarch of Judea. He was a man of vast 
ambition; shrewd, cunning, and of violent passions ; 
not above the tricks of a demagogue, he was, never- 
theless, possessed of much cleverness and vast execu- 
tive ability. To please his royal master, he built the 
splendid city of Cesarea. To conciliate the Jews, 
whom he hated, he rebuilt their temple and splendidly 
adorned it. 

In the porch of this temple the old king was walking 
on a February morning nearly 1,900 years ago. His 

216 


Wayfarers of the Bible 217 


purple robes sparkled with gems and precious stones ; 
a glorious ruby blazed in his turban; but his restless 
eyes betrayed a troubled heart. Off yonder, beyond 
the Kedron, a group of venerable strangers drew near ; 
their long garments covered with dust. They would 
have attracted attention anywhere. Entering at the 
eastern or Shushan gate, they climbed the marble 
stairway of the temple, entered Solomon’s porch, and 
would have passed on into the inner courts but for the 
admonition of a Levite, who pointed to an inscription 
on the middle wall of partition, “LeT No GENTILE OR 
UNCLEAN PERSON ENTER HERE UNDER PENALTY OF 
DEATH.” Arrested by this, they said, “We have come 
from the far East, seeking him who is born King of 
the Jews. Tell us where we may find him.” A mo- 
ment later they were engaged in conversation with 
Herod. 

“Whence come ye?” 

“From the East.” 

“And your errand?” 

“To find the promised King of the Jews.” 

“Tt is a fool’s errand; I alone am King of the Jews.” 

“Nay, we cannot be mistaken, for we have come 
under divine guidance.” 

And thereupon they told their story—how, as they 
were watching the stars according to their custom, 
and meditating on the great promise of the coming 
Deliverer, a new luminary wheeled into view and 
seemed to beckon them. Was this a harbinger of that 
event for which they looked? While they wondered, 
it moved on towards the west, and they arose and 
followed it. Their hope had been that the Jewish 


218 Wayfarers of the Bible 


Prince would be found in the Holy City, and they were 
amazed to find that nothing was here known of him. 

The wise men were detained while at Herod’s order 
the members of the Sanhedrin came together to con- 
sult as to the rumored birth of this prince. They 
agreed as to the prophecy. The event was to occur 
in Bethelehem, as it was written, “And thou, Bethele- 
hem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the 
princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a Gover- 
nor that shall rule my people Israel.” 

The wise men were then permitted to resume their 
journey, with a parting injunction that they should re- 
turn and report as to the success of their singular 
quest. As they set forth, lo, yonder in the heavens the 
star reappeared and moved along before them; and 
they followed with great joy. 

We may find profit in the contemplation of these 
pilgrims. From time immemorial they have been re- 
garded as kings: 

“We three kings of Orient are, 

Bearing gifts, we journey afar; 

Field and fountain, moor and mountain, 

Following yonder star.” 
In the Cathedral at Cologne there is a golden reliquary 
in which their relics are preserved in the odor of sanc- 
tity. I said to the venerable monk in attendance, “Do 
you really believe that these are the relics of the Wise 
Men?” 

“O, yes,” he replied. “There is no question what- 
ever as to their genuineness; we know their names— 
Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar. The Venerable 
Bede tells all about them.” 


Wayfarers of the Bible 219 


There is, however, a considerable doubt—to put it 
mildly—as to the trustworthiness of the legends which 
have gathered about these Magi. We have no reason 
to suppose they were kings, but we do know that they 
were truth-seekers; and, as Cromwell said to his 
daughter, “To be a truth-seeker is to be one of the best 
sect next to a truth-finder.” 


I. The quest. 


Wisdom is the principal thing, and there is nothing 
better than “to get understanding.” All truth is worth 
having. We blame our children for being inquisitive? 
But why? John Locke said, “The way to get knowl- 
edge is to ask questions.” A wiser still has said, 
“Seek, and ye shall find.” The cure for doubt is 
not a hoodwink, but a telescope. All truth is worth 
the having, and, therefore, worth the seeking. “Eu- 
reka!’”’ cried Archimedes over a certain mathe- 
matical discovery. In all the world there is no pursuit 
so ennobling, so inspiring, and so gladdening as the 
pursuit of truth. This holds in all provinces, but 
especially in the province of spiritual things. 

It is related of Edmund of Canterbury, who was 
deeply interested in secular researches, that one night 
as he was poring over an ancient parchment, the spirit 
of his dead mother came to him and made three cir- 
cles upon the palm of his hand, in token of the Holy 
Trinity, saying as she vanished, “Be this the purpose 
of thy life.” These circles do indeed embrace all. The 
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom—and the 
end also. God is Alpha and Omega, the first and the 
last. To know him is life eternal. 


220 Wayfarers of the Bible 


A man is in his noblest attitude when confronting 
the great spiritual verities. In this we are distin- 
guished from the lower orders of life. We are able 
to touch the tremendous problems and measurably to 
solve them; and herein is the sweetest of life’s delights. 
Lord Bacon said, “It is a pleasure to stand upon the 
shore and see ships tossing far away upon the sea; it 
is a pleasure to stand in the castle window and look 
down upon the battle and the adventures thereof; but 
no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the 
vantage ground of truth and beholding spiritual 
things.” 


II. The harbinger. 


God helps every man who earnestly desires to solve 
the problem of destiny. To these wise men he gave 
the guiding star. A vast amount of erudition has been 
spent in the attempt to get rid of the supernatural in 
these premises. It is said that a remarkable conjunc- 
tion of certain planets occurred at about this time. In 
1604 Kepler saw in the heavens a phenomenon which 
occurs only once in nearly a thousand years: Saturn 
and Jupiter were in conjunction; presently Mars also 
wheeled into line, thus forming “a fiery Trygon in 
Pisces.” The constellation of Pisces, or the Fish, was 
regarded as symbolical of Judea. The fish was also 
used by the early Christians as an anagram of Christ. 
Thus the fiery Trygon was identified with the star of 
Bethlehem. It is a fascinating hypothesis; but, un- 
fortunately, (1) it did not occur at the precise time of 
the Advent; and (2) being at an altitude of fifty-seven 
degrees it could not have paused over a village or a 


Wayfarers of the Bible 221 


particular home. We are, therefore, led to regard the 
star as a special messenger—an angel with a torch, as 
it were—sent to direct these wise men in their earnest 
quest. So God interposes in behalf of every sincere 
seeker for truth. “Seek, and ye shall find.” Seek, 
good friend, and you shall find. God is on your side. 
Be of good courage. 

It was many years ago that a butcher’s boy went 
singing ribald songs about the streets of Nottingham. 
A taste for knowledge brought him to Cambridge Uni- 
versity, where he distinguished himself not only for 
his cleverness as a student, but as a reviler of Christ. 
By the unexpected death of a companion he was 
brought to think seriously of eternal things; his sins 
weighed heavily upon him; and at Calvary he found 
pardon. In the early flush of his conversion he wrote 
his gratitude in the familiar hymn: 


“Once on the raging seas I rode; 

The storm was loud, the night was dark, 
The ocean yawned, and rudely blowed 

The wind that tossed my foundering bark. 
Deep horror then my vitals froze; 

Death-struck, I ceased the tide to stem, 
When suddenly a star arose: 

It was the Star of Bethlehem! 


“Tt was my guide, my light, my all; 
It bade my dark forebodings cease, 

And through the storm and danger’s thrall 
It led me to the port of peace. 

Now safely moored, my perils o’er, 

I'll sing, first in night’s diadem, 

For ever and forevermore, 
The Star, the Star of Bethlehem!” 


222 Wayfarers of the Bible 


God never yet left a man in the lurch who sincerely 
desired to solve the problem of destiny. It is a true 
saying, “A seeking sinner finds a seeking Saviour.” 
Somewhere in heaven the star is set that calls and 
beckons everyone to the fountain of life. 


Ill. The treasure trove. 


The wise men reached their destination. All the 
divinely kindled stars lead to Bethlehem. Here is the 
end of the great quest. The star that guided the Magi 
rested over a humble cottage. They entered and found 
the Christ-child—a child upon its mother’s breast! Is 
that all? Ay, all—and everything! In this child all 
the streams of prophecy converge. From this child 
radiate all the glowing lines of history. On the walls 
of the palace at Versailles, in a series of magnificent 
battle scenes, are portrayed the glories of France. In 
this humble home at Bethlehem all the hopes of Abra- 
ham, the dreams of David, and the visions of Isaiah 
are realized. This cottage is the center of the world. 

The Magi are opening their packs before the Christ- 
child. The search is over; the problem of destiny is 
solved. Here is gold for the King; here is myrrh for 
the Victor; here is frankincense for very God of very 
God. It is a meet and worthy offering; for indeed, 
the best is none too good for God. 


THD END 


“ 


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J. H. JOWETT 


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ie aah ae ae 


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